Visa Cash App RB went into the Spanish Grand Prix with great expectations, after bringing their largest upgrade package to date for Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda’s cars.
Both drivers were set to benefit from the significant upgrade package after the team made ‘intense preparations’ for the VCARB 01 in the build-up to the Spanish Grand Prix.
The £890 million team is sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, just 30 points behind Aston Martin. The Red Bull sister team is hoping to capitalise on their underwhelming results after Ricciardo scored points with an eighth place in Canada.
The upgrade package brought to the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya was meant to provide similar performance gains to their first introduced at Miami, where Ricciardo finished fourth in the Sprint race and Tsunoda scored five points across the weekend.
Instead, they both came away empty-handed, with Ricciardo finishing 15th and Tsunoda down in 19th after incurring a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
DRS is the source of problems for RB
RB brought six updates to their car in Barcelona including new brake cooling ducts, engine cover, sidepod inlets, floor body, rear wing, and beam wing.
According to a report by AMuS, the main issues occurred from the DRS flap which “fluttered uncontrollably” when activated. The team had to revert to an old-spec rear wing for the rest of the weekend, which compromised their package.
Whether the upgrade can work as intended at the next race in Austria will be key to them keeping up their momentum heading into the crucial European rounds.
Laurent Mekies rues missed opportunity
After both drivers suffered a shock Q1 elimination, it appeared as though it would be an uphill struggle for RB for the rest of the weekend. Ricciardo said he was “quite surprised” when his engineer told him the lap times relative to Williams.
Team principal, Laurent Mekies, believes it would have been tricky for the team to recuperate any points due to their qualifying positions low down the grid speaking in their race review.
“Unfortunately, right from the start of free practice, we were lacking pace in every session. There is no point denying this was a poor weekend for us and although the gaps were very small, we’re not going to make excuses for the fact we just weren’t competitive.
“Given our starting positions, it would have required some unusual circumstances – rain, a safety car – but the race was pretty linear and while both drivers did their best, we leave Spain with nothing to show for our efforts.”
The next few races will be key for Ricciardo to show he is worth retaining, as Liam Lawson awaits to be promoted in the fast driver market.
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