Daniel Ricciardo has admitted that despite recent upgrades, the RB team has yet to solve its car’s high-speed cornering issues.
The Australian driver has found his stride lately, securing points in three of the last six races, after a rough start compared to teammate Yuki Tsunoda. This uptick in performance has kept him in the conversation for potentially replacing Sergio Perez at Red Bull. However, things took an unexpected turn as Red Bull’s summer review left Ricciardo focused on his current task.
Ricciardo finished 11th at Spa, which later turned into a points finish after Mercedes’ George Russell was disqualified for an underweight car. Ricciardo saw this as a reward for the team’s updates at the Belgian Grand Prix. Despite a four-race scoring streak, Ricciardo maintains that the car’s high-speed performance still needs work.
‘I still feel like our strengths are in a little bit more the lower speed stuff and our weaknesses are a bit more in the real quick stuff,’ he explained. ‘I think real high speed we still got to work on a bit, but all the kind of tighter, twistier stuff we seem to be alright. So yeah, probably same characteristics, just now load is our friend so maybe I’ll put on some weight over the break, and that’ll help.’
Interestingly, Ricciardo was unaware of his exact race position before Russell’s disqualification, thinking he had a shot at points until Alpine’s Esteban Ocon overtook him late in the race. ‘I really thought we would have ended up in the points,’ he said. ‘When I had Ocon behind me, that’s when I knew I was 10th and I was like,
Oh, I really thought I was maybe ninth.
Cos I knew that holding him off was gonna be tricky. He was strong all weekend. And also, he just came out on a fresher tyre. I think we had a really good race, I just think some other drivers also had a really good race.’
While updates have brought some improvements, Ricciardo and the team still have work to do in mastering high-speed dynamics. However, his recent performances suggest he’s up for the challenge.
