Daniel Ricciardo has revealed that RB is not “chucking in the bin” the team’s lacklustre recent upgrades as it prepares to “mix” parts in Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix.
RB was striving to build on a promising start to the season and close on Aston Martin in Barcelona as it introduced a considerable upgrade package to the VCARB 01.
However, the Faenza-based squad slumped towards the back as both drivers succumbed to Q1 eliminations and Ricciardo classified as the highest-placed RB in 15th.
The Australian, who is battling to preserve his place on the grid, was bemused as he commented post-race that his car was not handling worse than the previous race.
But despite the developments not delivering the expected step, Ricciardo has stressed that RB isn’t writing off its new parts and will run tests in the one practice hour.
Instead, Ricciardo has divulged that he and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda will sample opposite set-up configurations in a mission to unlock the revised package’s potential.
“There is still some questions for sure,” Ricciardo admitted when asked about the upgrades. “But are we convinced that the upgrade is a flop? No, we’re not.
“So Yuki and I are going to start with different set-ups. It’s a combination of kind of everything, because we’re still trying to figure it out.
“We’ll start different tomorrow morning and then hopefully learn a bit from practice, and then merge for the Sprint quali.
“We’re not chucking anything in the bin yet. But there is still no firm conclusions, I would say. It’s a bit harder on a Sprint, but we have to keep trying to plug away at it.”
RB CEO Peter Bayer hinted that reverting a car to the pre-upgraded specification was an option, but Ricciardo has since clarified that will not be the case at this event.
The eight-time race winner has disclosed that one driver will be using an assortment of components, which will also comprise updates which RB didn’t bring to Spain.
Asked whether one car would be running the pre-Barcelona car to get a comparative test against the upgraded machine, Ricciardo said: “It’s a bit of a mix.
“There are certainly some old bits on one and whatever, but it’s not just like for like.
“Because there’s even some new-new bits I think that we’re both going to get a piece of. It’s mixed.
“But that’s their best guess from the data from Barcelona, from where they think it could be. Going to split the cars and see.”
Tsunoda is adamant that RB now understands the reason behind its troubles in Spain and is optimistic that a repeat won’t occur at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.
“So, we’re going to test for sure, as a team across the cars, and even though we knew that it’s going to be a Sprint qualifying race,” the Japanese driver added.
“We wanted to know these answers soon as possible, with comparing the cars. It’s not like old or new and everything. We’re still bringing some new parts into this week.
“It’s kind of mixed between all of them but should be end of this week. We know the answer, what was causing it and what’s the direction we should take in the future.”
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