Daniel Ricciardo: Red Bull Not There Yet

Aussie Still Searching For Speed


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Red Bull won't be scrapping at the front at this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix if Daniel Ricciardo's predictions are right.

The Aussie says the new car's been struggling for rear downforce compared to Mercedes and Ferrari.

Past seasons have seen the team lead the way with the aerodynamic package, but that's not the case this year.

"I think for me at the moment we don't have enough rear grip, so downforce basically," he said.

"But to be honest, I don't know if it's we don't have enough or we just haven't set the car up in the right way."

It's clear Ricciardo and the team have a lot more tweaking to do to match it with the front runners.

But it's not just the package they'll need to work on with more development still to come on the Renault engine.

"We're probably losing out in straight-line speed, I think to Mercedes we calculated about 0.4s in qualifying just on the straights and Ferrari was maybe 0.2s."

"So for sure we are still slower than they are but I don't think that's related to set-up or car balance."

The long straights of Shanghai will also test the Ferrari power plant and where it sits in comparison to the benchmark Mercedes after Sebastian Vettel won in Australia.

But it's the weather which could make things more interesting with rain on the forecast for this weekend's racing.

10 December 2018




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