Daniel Ricciardo will fulfill his hopes of getting a new RB chassis at the Chinese Grand Prix, not by design, but warns this is not expected to be a ‘performance differentiator’ has been done.
Ricciardo has ambitions to challenge current Red Bull driver Sergio Perez for the seat in 2025, with Perez’s contract running until the end of the season. However, Ricciardo has struggled to match the performance of teammate Hiroki Tsunoda and faces a battle to maintain his place in the junior RB line-up early in the 2024 F1 season.
Daniel Ricciardo gets new chassis but warns about performance
Ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix race weekend, Ricciardo said he was increasingly likely to receive a new chassis before RB told him “fuck it”. And his wish would come true at the next round in China, but not because RB bothered to build a new chassis, but because this spare chassis was due anyway.
Sporting director Alan Permane admits it makes sense to give the chassis to struggling Ricciardo, but doesn’t think it will suddenly mean he will get a ton of lap time.
“For me, the chassis is a big piece of carbon that you put the suspension on, you put the engine on, you put the gearbox on,” Permane said.
“It is very unlikely that there is a performance issue with the chassis.
“But we have something new, and it makes sense on every level to convey that to Daniel, especially that Yuki is so happy and so comfortable where she is right now.”
“We don’t prioritize the driver. As for Daniel, it might be better for him to completely put it to bed that there’s something wrong with the car.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a performance differentiator, and I’m not looking to have drivers come and go. It’s just a happy coincidence that happened.
“We’re not going to bring the chassis because of his issues, but let’s be clear about that. Everything is meshing well.”
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And he stressed that these are comfort issues for Ricciardo, and that RB will be very cautious about how they are addressed, and there is no technical reason why Ricciardo cannot maximize the potential of the VCRB01. .
“It’s not easy,” Permane admitted. “Those kinds of things can be taken care of in the setup.” [but] What you don’t want to do is slow the car down.
“We’ve been very careful not to make the car more comfortable, but to make it slower.
“In a perfect world, you would do your best to give him confidence and slowly recover to get maximum performance.
“There’s no reason why Daniel can’t drive the car as fast as it should, that’s clear and I’m sure he understands that.”
“That’s what we have to do: give him the fastest car possible.”
Tsunoda finished 7th in the last Australian Grand Prix, earning RB his first points of the season.
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