Daniel Ricciardo says he is likely to take a tactical engine penalty at the next Formula 1 event in Germany, and has emphasised that the team can remain in title contention.
Ricciardo has already reached the limit of his season-long allocation of the six components that constitute the power unit, having used three Internal Combustion Engines, Turbochargers and MGU-Hs alongside two MGU-Ks, Energy Stores and Control Electronics.
Red Bull recognises that its RB14 package is more likely to suit the layout of the Hungarian Grand Prix’s Hungaroring, the final event prior to Formula 1’s four-week summer break, compared to Hockenheim.
Ricciardo has therefore said it is “very likely” that he will take on a substantial engine penalty for the next race at Hockenheim.
Red Bull has enjoyed one of its strongest spells in Formula 1’s hybrid era in recent months, taking two wins from the last four events, via Ricciardo in Monaco and Max Verstappen in Austria.
Red Bull has taken 134 points in the five Grands Prix since its drivers collided in Azerbaijan, compared to 133 for Ferrari and 127 for reigning champions Mercedes.
“We are doing pretty well considering we’ve only finished six out of nine,” said Ricciardo ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
“So we are doing all right. But doing all right is not enough to be there. Especially because we are not dominating every race.
“We need to finish more. Two [retirements] were technical and one was the incident with Max. We have to try and finish more.”
Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes have split this year’s nine Grand Prix victories equally between each other, and Ricciardo expressed confidence that his outfit can taste success again.
“I think we will win again this year,” he said.
“We have a chance to win on some tracks, and some opportunities will arise, but I still don’t think we have the real pace every weekend to convince ourselves that we can be there.
“I still think we need to find a little bit to be there on more tracks.
“But we never showed signs of speed in Austria from Friday until Sunday. And sure Mercedes had their problems, but even so we thought on pace Ferrari should have made it easy on us from everything we’d seen.
“Hopefully the [tracks] we expect to be quick on we are. If we come fifth and sixth in Budapest we are probably going to be pretty pissed off!”
