Australian calls on team and engine supplier to work together
Thursday 26 March 2015 17:15, UK
Daniel Ricciardo has blamed the war of words between Red Bull and Renault on “frustration” and called on them to pull together and improve their competitiveness, starting in Malaysia this weekend.
It was the Australian’s struggle to sixth place in his home race two weeks ago that provoked the falling out, with Red Bull team boss Christian Horner describing Renault’s power unit as “undriveable” and the French manufacturer itself as “a bit of a mess”.
Renault F1 counterpart Cyril Abiteboul then hit back, saying that Red Bull must take their share of the blame before saying that designer Adrian Newey, also critical of their engine partner, had told “lies”.
“To be honest, I haven’t seen anything else other than things I’ve heard or read, so I don’t know too much more on the insides or the nitty-gritty of it all,” Ricciardo told Sky Sports News HQ at Sepang on Thursday.
“But I think it’s purely a bit of frustration for now. Obviously Red Bull’s a winning team, they want results and it’s, I guess it’s still very early to start talking about this.
“We’ve only had one race, but for sure we expected to be more competitive coming into the season.
“I think some people felt they just had to get a few things off their chest; [you] say what you’ve got to say I guess. But now we’re at a race weekend, it’s time to put our head down and focus on improving.
“We’re in a process now where we’ve got a lot of improvements to make. Surely there’s going to be a bit of frustration there probably over the next few races, but we’ve got to do it constructively.”
Renault are hopeful the driveability problems Ricciardo and team-mate Daniil Kvyat experienced in Melbourne will ease this weekend, although they are still some way – as much as 100bhp – behind Mercedes in terms of power.
“Melbourne was pretty rough. Between both cars, we had some pretty significant issues throughout practice and the race,” Ricciardo added.
“I think we come here obviously a bit more confident that we’ll have less issues. Whether it means we’ll have a completely smooth weekend, it’s obviously a bit early and a bit unknown to say, but I’m confident it’s going to be smoother than Melbourne.”
Sky Sports F1 will show every session from the Malaysia Grand Prix weekend live and available on the move with SkyGo. The race starts at 8am on Sunday March 29, with comprehensive build-up underway from 6:30am.
