Daniel Ricciardo is hoping VCARB will locate a “big hole” in his car after a lackluster P13 at the British GP could end his chances of promotion to Red Bull.
Despite near-weekly reports claiming his F1 career is at stake, Ricciardo’s top ten performances in Canada and Austria were reported by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, with a possible driver change at the helm. . planned mid-season.
PlanetF1. com understood that there are clauses in the contract of Ricciardo and Sergio Perez that allow such an exchange and the latter’s clause is said to be due to his deficit to Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.
If there are more than a hundred problems during the summer holidays, it is understood that Red Bull can leave Pérez and put driving force in the car.
But neither of them had a weekend at the British Grand Prix.
Ricciardo qualified in 15th place, seven-tenths slower than VCARB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, but it was worse for Perez, who was left in 19th after his car failed in Q1.
Ricciardo finished the Grand Prix in 13th position on a day when Tsunoda increased his problem total. As for Perez, he took 17th place with Max Verstappen in second position.
Ricciardo expects VCARB to notice something with his car, especially as he couldn’t keep up speed with Logan Sargeant’s Williams.
“I’m hoping there’s a big hole in my car that I haven’t noticed yet and that’s why we’re going slow,” he said.
“Honestly, as a team we are suffering here. Looking at the Williams at the end of that stint, Sargeant abandoned me and I think [Alex] Albon came in and passed Tsunoda.
“Yuki scored a point, he did well, but I think as a team we weren’t very competitive this weekend. “
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Ricciardo revealed that his biggest challenge was not so much the challenge with the car, but simply lacking pace.
“My engineer asked me where, what am I missing? What do I need? And I felt like he was saying the balance and everything else was fine, I felt like we were just running out of charge,” he said.
“So when I heard everyone else’s lap times, I was pretty calm because I did the lap, and the lap was pretty blank; some things, but it was good. “
“I was close to the perspective of the car and that’s when I told myself I didn’t have an answer at the time.
“Looking at the other cars ahead, I felt the speed at which they could get a little further away. So probably my explanation [is] we’re running out of rate a little bit.
“Downforce is king, but there are still some things that we missed, or I think we missed some things, just with our car and its optimization.
“We have to look to the future, everything, but for now, with what we had. . . Probably still with the set-up, maybe there are some things that maybe me and the team don’t perceive very well. “
Ricciardo will reportedly have to wait two more races to find out his fate for 2024 and next season, as Red Bull and VCARB will meet over the summer break to discuss their driver line-ups.
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