RB’s recent upgrades did not produce the expected results in Barcelona. Daniel Ricciardo has disclosed that RB is not discarding the underwhelming upgrades, but instead, they are planning to mix different parts for the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix in Formula 1. RB had high hopes of catching up to Aston Martin in Barcelona by introducing a significant upgrade package to the VCARB 01. Unfortunately, both drivers were eliminated in Q1, and Ricciardo finished 15th, the highest-placed RB. Despite the disappointment, Ricciardo emphasized that RB is not giving up on the new parts and will conduct tests during the practice session. Ricciardo and his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, will experiment with different set-up configurations in an attempt to unlock the potential of the revised package. Ricciardo acknowledged that there are still some uncertainties surrounding the upgrades, but they are not considering them a failure just yet. They will continue to explore different options and strive for improvement.
RB CEO Peter Bayer suggested that it was a possibility to revert a car back to its previous upgraded state, but Ricciardo has clarified that this will not be the case for this particular event.
The driver who has won eight races in the past has revealed that one of the drivers will be using a combination of different components, including updates that were not brought to Spain by RB.
When asked if one car will be running with the pre-Barcelona car in order to compare it to the upgraded car, Ricciardo stated: “It’s a bit of a mixture.
“There are definitely some older parts on one car and others, but it’s not a direct comparison.
“Because there are even some completely new parts that I think both of us will have. It’s a mix.
“But that’s their best estimation based on the data from Barcelona, where they believe it could be. We will split the cars and find out.”
Tsunoda is confident that RB now understands the cause of their issues in Spain and is hopeful that they will not encounter the same problems at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.
“So, as a team, we will definitely be testing across the cars, even though we know it will be a Sprint qualifying race,” the Japanese driver added.
“We wanted to find out the answers as soon as possible by comparing the cars. It’s not about old versus new or anything like that. We will still be introducing some new parts this week.
“It’s a combination of all of them, but by the end of this week, we should have the answer to what was causing the issues and the direction we should take in the future.”