Daniel Ricciardo has revealed how a previous experience at McLaren triggered his request to the RB Formula 1 team to change his chassis for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Ricciardo entered the campaign with Red Bull’s sister team bidding to impress enough to return to the seat at the Austrian outfit’s senior team that he vacated in 2018.
However, the Australian has trailed behind team-mate Yuki Tsunoda at each of the four rounds this season, with a Q1 exit in Australia prompting talk of a chassis swap.
RB Racing Director Alan Permane revealed last weekend that a chassis was being constructed as a coincidence but will be flown out to Shanghai for Ricciardo to use.
Permane was adamant that the tub Ricciardo has used to date in 2024 had no defects and the eight-time F1 winner qualified 0.055 seconds behind Tsunoda in Suzuka.
Asked whether his reduced gap to Tsunoda had eradicated his prior doubts, Ricciardo said: “I’m still curious. For sure. Because it’s something that at least… peace of mind.”
Ricciardo recalls an encounter at McLaren in 2021 when he went from winning at Monza to lagging two seconds behind polesitter and team-mate Lando Norris in Sochi.
“Just through past experience, I’ll be honest, it was when I won Monza [2021], they wanted to retire that chassis,” he recounts. So I had a different one for Russia.
“And I was nowhere in Russia. I remember. So after that, I said, guys, I don’t want this chassis, give me the other one back. And then the next race was Austin, and we were back on it again.”
“So yeah, there has been some times where I have been certainly sceptical about some chassis for whatever reason not performing well. So yeah, just wanted to want to make sure.”
There have been multiple incidences in the past where teams have sought to alleviate the concerns of underperforming drivers through conducting such an operation.
One such case was in 2020 when Sebastian Vettel, competing in the final season of his Ferrari contract, was struggling to match Charles Leclerc and changed chassis.
Ferrari had reassured Vettel that his previous chassis was not damaged and the German’s form failed to improve as he ended a sizeable 65 points behind his team-mate.
Ricciardo was unable to capitalise on his encouraging one-lap showing in Japan as a crash with Alex Albon’s Williams on the opening lap at Turn 3 eliminated both cars.
The ex-McLaren driver remains without a point to his name, but Tsunoda converted another Q3 appearance into a single point to consolidate RB’s grip on seventh place.
