Daniel Ricciardo has conceded that the next weeks will be an “important” period in RB’s Formula 1 season as it strives to understand its recent dip in competitiveness.
RB was on a four-race points streak and endeavouring to catch Aston Martin in the Constructors’ standings when it introduced a substantial update package in Spain.
But the Faenza-based squad has been unable to maintain that momentum as those latest developments have not delivered the step anticipated from the wind tunnel.
RB’s ruinous showing in Barcelona prompted the team to undergo experiments at the Red Bull Ring that comprised running a mix between the old and new packages.
While he managed to return to the points in Austria the weekend prior with ninth spot, Ricciardo was perplexed with the pace in Britain which saw him trail home 13th.
Despite his team-mate managing to bag a single point last weekend, Yuki Tsunoda relied on one Ferrari, one Mercedes and one Red Bull being out of the mix to score.
Both drivers converged on the same specification at Silverstone and Ricciardo has stressed the coming races will be pivotal in determining RB’s direction this season.
“This could be a real shifting point or you’re at that moment where you need to make the best calls in the next… I mean, every moment of F1 is important,” he stated.
“Because this update and our correlation and our understanding can obviously dictate what we do with the next update and how well we understand it.
“And what we learn now will basically dictate where our car is in October, November. So it’s a really important period for us.
“And I’m obviously not an engineer, not an aerodynamicist, but let’s say in these moments, I feel our duty as a driver is to just give as much as we can.
“Feelings, feedbacks, positives, negatives, comparisons to other cars, everything, just to give them as much understanding of why we are where we are at the moment.
“So yeah, it’s a lot of… I throw a lot on the table and just say, you guys deal with it. But yeah, it’s obviously a little bit like that.
“We have to just put it all out there and hopefully they can understand it. And simulator stuff as well.
“What we feel on the sim, just try to correlate that to the real car. Yeah, so it’s a team effort. But yeah, there’s a little bit for us to go from these last three weeks.”
Haas brought sizeable upgrades to Silverstone which enabled Nico Hulkenberg to replicate his sixth-place finish from Austria to cut the gap to RB down to four points.
But Ricciardo has insisted that RB should not panic amid its recent struggles and has instead called on his side to take inspiration from the American squad’s inroads.
Asked which teams were surprising him, Ricciardo answered: “I mean, definitely the Haas the last couple [of] weekends. Nico scored big two weekends in a row now.
“And all of a sudden our sixth place in the Constructors, the gap isn’t there anymore. It’s three or four points. We knew that this sport can shift so quickly and you never rest.
“And that’s why, fairness to the team, we brought updates a couple of weeks ago. We were pushing.
“We’ve been bringing updates every few races and they’ve actually been working really well. So obviously this one hasn’t as much as certainly we would have wanted.
“So it’s not due to a lack of effort. But yeah, this is now where you get tested, where the season’s looking really good and now it’s at a kind of plateau.
“And as I said, we have to make that right step. And yeah, it’s not about throwing tables around the room. It’s all constructive.
“Of course, yeah, people are frustrated in that. But this is all about being constructive and trying to keep everyone together. And yeah, it’s also motivational.
“You know, you see Haas, they’ve obviously found something. So there is lap time there. There is things that we can find. So we just got to make sure we find it.”
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