On Friday, both Racing Bull drivers were hoping for an improvement in pace. After all, the team has added some new parts to the car, especially on the underbody. However, this has hardly paid off so far. For Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo, it was already over in Q1. The two finished 17th and 18th – despite three attempts on fresh soft tires. It is now clear: the new update has not worked so far.
Daniel Ricciardo tough: Shows that we don’t have enough pace
Daniel Ricciardo was unable to beat his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying in Spain. However, this is less relevant in positions 17 and 18. He is more concerned about the performance of his car, which has actually been the fastest car in the rear Formula 1 field so far.
Spanish GP 2024 starting grid
“We have a lot of new parts on the car and we need to understand how to make them work best,” explains Ricciardo. The team has made progress in one area at least.
Namely the general feeling in the car. “Today the car felt better. So we’ve made progress in terms of feeling and balance, but we’re still in a difficult situation when we look at the clock.”
The Racing Bulls were eight tenths behind the leaders in Q1. They were just under two tenths behind in 15th place. Too much for the team, which is in sixth place in the constructors’ world championship. “Retiring with both cars in Q1, even though we drove three times with fresh softs, shows that we don’t have enough pace,” Ricciardo sums up.
Yuki Tsunoda: At least I am satisfied with my round
Yuki Tsunoda was also unable to make a big splash with the material available to him. “We had problems with the pace this weekend and tried many things to improve it,” said Tsunoda. But even these changes were unable to bring about any major changes.
“I felt better in qualifying than in practice. I’m happy with my lap and think I was able to get the most out of the package,” said Tsunoda, satisfied with his own performance.
“Because the midfield is so close together, it’s easy to slide back from the midfield if you have problems,” Racing Bull technical director Jody Egginton analyzes the situation. However, the team can hardly make any major changes to the car due to Parc Ferme. “We still have a lot of work to do before Austria.”
