Daniel Ricciardo and his teammate Yuki Tsunoda faced a double elimination in Q1 at the Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying.
The Australian driver placed a disappointing P18, while his teammate only one place above, starting P17 on the grid tomorrow.
Upgrades doing wonders?
Visa Cash App RB have been struggling with their car from early this season. With attempts to try to improve the car, changes were made after yesterdays FP3 session where Ricciardo and Tsunoda placed in P16 and P18 respectively.
Although as a viewer these upgrades were barely noticeable and the RB trailed behind in qualifying.
Ricciardo stated, “I’d like to think there’s still a bit more on the package to figure out.”
“But on the on the flip side, I do feel like yesterday we were much more out of balance. And actually, today, you know, in quali, the car felt much more together.”
The Visa Cash App RB Team did, in fact, have a good weekend in Canada, with Daniel Ricciardo qualifying P5 and his teammate in P8.
It’s a shame the team hasn’t carried this momentum through to Spain, but with the positivity from Ricciardo maybe we will see more from the upgrades during the race tomorrow.
Ricciardo further stated the issue was with the aero balance shift.
“I had more confident and confidence in it, but unfortunately on this thing, the stop watch was still where we were yesterday. It’s progress, mainly about getting the aero balance shift under control.”
Daniel Ricciardo qualifying P18 came as “quite a surprise”
After their performance in Canada, fans were all hoping for a higher qualifying position from the Australian.
There have been questions about his seat next year, and his performance so far and P18 in Spain is really not helping his case.
Ricciardo said, “Pierre told me P18, I think it was where we ended up, Yeah, I didn’t really have anything to say on the radio because I was honestly quite surprised. I knew we’re not going to be a P10, but I honestly thought that would have been good enough for Q2.”
It is good to see that the RB Team are trying to improve, but with bringing in upgrades there does always come with a risk of not working, which RB definitely took.
Ricciardo’s ready to face the future “head on”
The RB Team have a lot of work ahead of them, with Austria and Silverstone being very similar to the Spanish track.
Using this time to test and experiment what works with the car and doesn’t could help RB gather some all important points this season. Daniel Ricciardo is certainly willing to put in that work.
Ricciardo said, “We’ve got some work to do, but at least we got, let’s say, a good few weeks now of a proper test in terms of testing the package test how good we can bounce back, and understand it.”
After this disappointing Qualifying, hopefully the RB Team will have a few good overtakes in tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Ricciardo stated, “in a way, we have to face it head on.”