Daniel Ricciardo said that his first day trying out the latest Renault power unit upgrades had been very promising.
Currently driving for the Red Bull customer team, Ricciardo will move to the factory squad in 2019. So far it seems that he likes what he sees.
"I used the new C-Spec engine for the first time which seemed to run okay," he reported.
"We won’t really know how well it performed until we look at the data," he continued. "This afternoon we did some decent running with it and hopefully it shows some good numbers.
“We looked more competitive on the long runs this afternoon. But on the short runs Ferrari were really fast and we also still have a big gap to Mercedes.
"We definitely closed the gap on the long runs which is promising for the race, but there is still a bit to find.
"We'll look at the data but I think it worked okay for us," he said. "We'll see a bit more closely but I think it showed some positive signs."
It hadn't exactly started off all that well. The Red Bull was seen to stutter on its first excursion out of the pits in FP1, leaving the team fearing some sort of terminal issue with the new units.
Fortunately that wasn't the case and the problem was quickly sorted out, allowing Ricciardo to have a problem-free session.
"It was actually only my first lap with it we had some issues," the Australian said. "We fixed those and it was okay."
"It was just a bit of a software issue that the engine went into a safe mode," elaborated team boss Christian Horner. "[It was] a numbers thing, so once the numbers have been rectified, he could continue.
"Obviously he's come back to the pits slowly and the numbers rebooted and away he goes again," Horner told Sky Sports F1.
Unfortunately, the engine change does mean that Ricciardo will definitely be starting from the back row in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix. He's promised to do all he can to show off his overtaking prowess in the race in order to overcome the setback.
"I try to approach it the same, but probably a bit more relaxed knowing there's not much to do other than race," he suggested.
"We did a few long runs but the likelihood of us qualifying tomorrow is slim knowing we'll start at the back," he said. "I probably won’t do much running and it’s possible I will skip qualifying.
"So just focus on race runs. It's kinda chill.
"I think on Sunday we will have a good enough car to come through the field and then work on the best position in the top five."
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