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Ricciardo RB ‘struggled’ more than they should have, admitting the team lost out’ in the upgrade battle.
Daniel Ricciardo and his No.3 VCARB, struggled when the team arrived in Silverstone. The weather conditions constantly changed around the circuit, with a wet-dry race come Sunday afternoon. Ricciardo started the weekend off on a back foot, slotting his car into P15 with his teammate not making much improvements, starting from P13.
With the weather changing throughout the race and the threat of rain, Ricciardo believed this could be the opportunity RB have been waiting for to take advantage of and claim much-needed points.
A tough weekend
Despite the Australian’s optimism, the team struggled to make up any positions during the race. The team salvaged one point after Yuki Tsunoda finished in tenth position, Ricciardo wasn’t as fortunate and finished his race in P13.
“I don’t want to play the poor us card in terms of things not going our way,” Ricciardo expressed to the media after the race.
“I think it was a mixed conditions race and that excited us, to maybe grab some opportunities, but truth is we just weren’t competitive through all the conditions, I felt.”
“We certainly lacked speed today, it was definitely tricky, so a pretty long race.
“Every time I saw the weather change, I thought maybe this is the moment where everything will come alive and we [get] something to show but, yeah, really just not a competitive day.
“Obviously these days it’s a long race, it’s a long 50-something laps, and you know when you don’t have it. You know it’s going to take something – maybe a change of conditions – to really turn it on, but we struggled.”
‘We struggled more than we should have.’
RB brought its first major upgrade to the VCARB 01 in Spain, however, the team struggled around the 2.8-mile long circuit with the pair only mustering up at 17th and 18th finishing position. When the team headed to Austria, things seemed to be turning around, with Ricciardo running in the points for a majority of the race, however, ultimately couldn’t grab a point in Spielberg.
The Australian was asked if he was surprised by the lack of pace in Silverstone:
“I feel like we struggled more than we should have – I know that this isn’t necessarily going to be a real competitive circuit for us, but I still felt relatively we struggled more, so [we’ll] try and get into it and figure out why that was.
“A week ago obviously we had a good race, we were in the points, but I think, compared to some of our competitors in the midfield, we have lost out a little bit in the latest kind of upgrade battle,”
Ricciardo looks ahead to the next race weekend in Hungary, where he hopes the team will be able to bounce back:
“So, yeah, I think Budapest [is a] completely different circuit, so let’s see, but it’s not enough for us just to be like, ‘Yeah, that track will suit us and we’ll be okay’. We’ve obviously got to rectify some weaknesses, and I’ll obviously look at my race and figure out where I lacked the pace.
“But there were times we were missing about eight tenths a lap – I didn’t really feel like that was there. [I was] a little bit puzzled through moments of the race so, yeah, just one of those days.”
Featured image credits: Rudy Carezzevoli via Getty Images