Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Ricciardo: Red Bull stood still

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Daniel Ricciardo says Red Bull has failed to make a step forward this season while everyone around it has.

Following three victories last season, Ricciardo finished third in the drivers' championship while Red Bull was second in the constructors'. However, with a best result of sixth place in 2015, Ricciardo says it is clear the team has failed to move forward and has lost its previous advantage in high-speed corners.

“I think we knew even before Spain but I think that highlighted it’s not only engine," Ricciardo said. "I think everyone’s obviously now aware of that and putting their hands up as well and saying ‘Yeah, we know, it’s not where it should be’.

"Obviously the last four or five years for Red Bull, one standout was the downforce and particularly high-speed corners. Even last year we were always pretty strong in high-speed. I thought it was our strength as a team. This year we’re not better than anyone in high-speed, if anything I think we’re even slower than the top guys in high-speed corners.

"So that’s just one area where for whatever reason we haven’t taken our normal step forward and the other teams have. We’re losing out in a few places, as I said everyone in the team knows now, it’s just trying to figure out why and how to fix it. But it’s not just Renault.”

And Ricciardo says it is clear Red Bull should be performing better given the resources available to the team.

"I guess it’s more one for the engineers or for the aero guys to answer but for whatever reason all the weaknesses from our car last year - a car is never perfect - so all the weaknesses we did have we obviously tried to rectify for this year. But I think the car is pretty much the same where everyone else has found some improvements for their weaknesses.

"So why we haven’t made that step I don’t know. Obviously we’ve got good resources in the team and obviously all the financial side, the workshop and everything we've got there is of good quality, so I don’t know.”

Click here for a look at the technical updates brought by all the teams at the start of the European season

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.