Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo fears F1 Monaco Grand Prix grid penalty
Daniel Ricciardo says he and Red Bull hope to nurse his fourth Formula 1 engine to avoid picking up a grid penalty for the next grand prix in Monaco
Red Bull installed Ricciardo's fourth engine of the season when a fluid leak was identified after first practice at Barcelona on Friday.
Changing the engine was deemed the quicker outcome and even then Ricciardo only managed four laps when he emerged towards the end of FP2.
Ricciardo said that he wouldn't have run much more even if the car had been ready for the start of the session, because he and Red Bull are wary of having to take a penalty for a fifth engine next time out in Monaco.
"We expected today to be limited with mileage," Ricciardo said after practice.
"The main thing is to try to get this engine to the end of Monaco.
"That's the last place you want to take a penalty, so fingers crossed this engine lasts at least two weekends and then we'll assess everything after that.
"We've got to save mileage so we wouldn't have done much more this afternoon - probably one more run.
"Unfortunately we have to be aware that I'm already onto the last one. It's not something we can ignore.
"We're doing what we can, and we hope this engine will get us through at least Monaco so we don't have a penalty on a street circuit."
MORE TO DO ON UPGRADES
Ricciardo's limited mileage meant that he didn't get much of a chance to try the new parts added to the RB11 for this weekend, but he feels the team still has work to do to get on top of its developments.
"We had quite a few updates today and trying to get them working in the correct window is something we've got to discover," he said.
"There's a lot of potential. I don't think we got it all working on my car - it wasn't where we wanted it to be.
"It will be better, we've just got to understand what it's like and try to get more pace out of it."
"We have been looking closely at how the upgrades work, so we hope to extract even more tomorrow," said the Russian.
"We know there are a few areas to improve and it's never perfect.
"When you have a new package the car changes quite a bit and you always want to analyse it."
Share Or Save This Story
Autosport 75: How Verstappen scored his first F1 win
The supercharged Revolution that has piqued an Olympic legend's motorsport taste
How Radical revamped its record-breaking flagship model
Who could stand-in for Verstappen at Red Bull if he gets an F1 race ban?
Top five Australian F1 drivers ranked: Brabham, Webber, Piastri and more
Why life after racing in F1 has plenty of upsides for Ricciardo
Why progress 'won't satisfy' Red Bull until it can give Verstappen a winning car
Red Bull appoints Lagrue as junior driver chief after Mercedes F1 exit
Verstappen on latest Red Bull woes: "Desperate? I'm already past that stage"
WRC Finland: Ogier in command after torrential rain shakes up order
New commercial rights holder announced for the WRC and ERC in landmark deal
The principles Stella holds dear at McLaren to make the F1 team tick
The challenge Haas faces in trying to meet F1 budget cap: "Fighting with both hands tied"
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments