Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Ricciardo targets improved 2016 despite Renault woes

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Daniel Ricciardo says he hopes Red Bull is able to be more competitive in 2016 despite concern regarding its power unit supply.

Red Bull is set to use a form of the Renault power unit next year after returning to negotiations with its current supplier having previously moved to terminate its deal. However, team principal Christian Horner told F1i in Brazil the updated Renault engine had proven to be 0.15s per lap slower than the previous version around Interlagos.

Despite the less than encouraging signs, Ricciardo believes Red Bull can still improve compared to its rivals in 2016.

"I'll know a bit more when we know what is going to be in the back of the car," Ricciardo said at the Race of Champions. "Obviously where we are right now it would be hard for us to say 'Yep, we're going to challenge for a title', but at the same time I'd like to think that next year we can get more than two podiums."

Asked when Red Bull is likely to finalise its plans for 2016, Ricciardo said: "I'm guessing but I would say around Abu Dhabi.

"There should be some news by the last race of the year, so I won't promise anything but hopefully in the next week you guys will know something."

And Ricciardo says Red Bull was not left too frustrated by the lack of progress from the Renault power unit in Brazil.

"We didn't expect much. They were saying it was probably going to be 0.1s anyway, in the end it wasn't really the 0.1s but we had sort of reduced expectations anyway. So it wasn't massively frustrating anyway but of course you always hope that maybe there is something more in it. We'll see what happens in Abu Dhabi and then go from there."

Technical analysis - Brazil

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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.