Red Bull is “not expecting anything too much” from this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix, according to Daniel Ricciardo, following its Friday practice showing at the Sochi Autodrom.
Practice at Sochi repeated the trend so far for 2017, with Red Bull finishing as the third-best team, significantly adrift of Ferrari/Mercedes, but comfortably clear of the midfield group.
Max Verstappen finished fifth, his best lap 1.4s behind Sebastian Vettel and 0.7s down on fourth-placed Lewis Hamilton, while Ricciardo took sixth, over three-tenths slower than his team-mate.
“We had some good signs throughout the day then sort of some little peaks and little drops,” said Ricciardo.
“We’ll look at the peaks and be happy about those. We probably just lacked consistency run to run, but I felt like when we were going we seemed to be going alright.
In terms of us here this weekend we know this is what we’ve got, we’re obviously trying to do what we can with the current car and package, but we’re not expecting anything too much this weekend.
“It’s kind of just doing what we can, get the job done, and hopefully fight for a bit more in a few weeks.”
Verstappen was unable to complete his run plan after coming to a halt with 20 minutes remaining of the second session.
“We think it was a fuel pressure issue, so it’s a shame, again, no long run but that’s how it is, luckily Daniel did a long run so we can look into the data for Sunday,” he said.
“This track is just not good for us because of the long straights, we will just try to make the best of it.”
Red Bull has yet to finish on the podium at Sochi, with Daniil Kvyat's fifth place at the 2015 event its best result.
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