RB’s Daniel Ricciardo revealed on Thursday that the Faenza-based Formula 1 outfit is running a half-upgraded spec machine for this weekend’s British Grand Prix to halt its recent slump in performance.
RB introduced an almost totally upgraded Formula 1 car for the Spanish Grand Prix, but those upgrades failed to deliver performance on track.
Instead, the team regressed to a double-Q1 exit and a scoreless round at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, having scored in the four rounds prior.
The team’s fortunes improved slightly at the Red Bull Ring with Ricciardo scoring a ninth-place finish in the Austrian GP, but the pace was still lacking, prompting a change in approach at Silverstone.
“I’d say for now the experimenting is done and we have both cars on the same stuff this week and it’s honestly a mixture of new and old,” Ricciardo said.
“We brought quite a bit to Barcelona and yeah, some good things, some not so. It’s odd, so honestly, it’s probably like half, like straight down the middle, new and old.
“So we at least have more confidence coming into this weekend that we’ve got currently our best package.”
Ricciardo accepted that new parts to the car are “not unfortunately all upgrades” and acknowledged that upgrades being brought to the VCARB 01 prior to Barcelona had been working successfully.
The Australian went on to imply that the journey of discovery across the Summer Formula 1 triple-header was important so that “understanding why [the upgrades] didn’t work” means “what we bring moving forward is obviously going to benefit us.”
“We have confidence that we now have currently the best parts on the car,” he concluded.
Yuki Tsunoda also adopted a half-glass-full mentality regarding RB’s recent setbacks, proving the troubling period was an important one for the team to learn and ultimately move on from.
“We have to understand clearly what was causing the issue, but pretty much most of it we covered the reasons why we weren’t able to perform,” the Japanese driver said.
“Actually it was good learning for us because it’s a new team and sometimes the upgrade that didn’t work tells us what was the issue and what to do to move forward for the future.
“So actually it was good data for us.”
RB currently lies sixth in the Constructors’ standings with a haul of 30 points, but its recent slip-up has left it at the mercy of Haas, a team that elevated itself to seventh in the standings with 19 points after a double-scoring finish last time out in Austria.
It’s now imperative RB recovers its form to keep the American Haas outfit at bay in Formula 1’s midfield.
