RB Formula 1 boss Laurent Mekies has said its work to erase the limitations that hampered Daniel Ricciardo helped him secure fourth in the Miami Grand Prix Sprint.
Ricciardo endured a disappointing start to the campaign, as team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had the upper hand and spearheaded RB’s rise to seventh in the championship.
But the Australian, who harbours ambitions of returning to Red Bull’s senior setup, was competing for points in China until Lance Stroll hit his car under the Safety Car.
Having admitted he felt a chassis change had improved his feeling in the VCARB 01, Ricciardo converted fourth on the grid in the truncated Sprint affair last weekend.
Ricciardo was able to resist race-long pressure from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to secure a breakthrough result Mekies predicted was coming.
“I’m sure it was a huge weight [off his shoulders] because the US is nearly his second home race,” Mekies told Motorsport.com.
“He did it in style with an incredible defence to Carlos and the McLaren. It was a fantastic moment for him.
“In fairness, we had seen signs of improvement before, but it was very difficult to explain it to the world.
“Saudi was a better performance than Bahrain, Australia was better than Saudi, Japan was better than Australia and China was better than Japan.
“It had been coming in many, many small steps and we think there is more steps we can do in the next few races to help suit the car better to him.”
Mekies, who revealed prior to Miami that RB will have parts suited to Ricciardo, added that the Faenza-based squad had begun to dial out issues restricting his pace.
“Let’s just say that we identified stuff he was not happy with and took away quite a lot of the speed.
“We have tried to tick all the boxes to erase these limitations and there are a few more we would like to see ticked over the next few weekends.
“It was always planned to introduce a new chassis before race six.
“It was a nice box to tick on our issues with Daniel to make him more comfortable and he did better straight away in China and Miami.
“It’s a big value for a team to be able to understand and analyse what is happening with the drivers and it’s not always visible on the data.
“We are still trying to understand what it is that was disturbing him before, and it’s a work in progress.”
Ricciardo was unable to back that outing up later in the weekend as he cited difficulties with the tyres upon his slump to a Q1 exit and subsequent 15th-place finish.
Mekies reckons that Ricciardo’s contrasting fortunes at the Miami International Autodrome demonstrate how tight the margins are among a compact midfield pack.
“You have to nail every single aspect of the weekend at a top level. If we don’t do it, we are out of Q1 straight away,” he determined.
“We had a fantastic performance with Daniel in the Sprint quali and in the Sprint itself.
“And then in the main quali, we were a little bit out of the tyre window, a little bit of a mistake there, and suddenly you’re out and that’s the reality.
“That’s what I like about racing. It’s 10 or 12 cars fighting, but it’s certainly a very intense pressure on the team.”
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