Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Ricciardo: Power unit ‘a lot better’

Daniel Ricciardo says the Renault power unit delivered better driveability than in Australia during Friday practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Red Bull and Renault have been embroiled in a war of words after Christian Horner criticised the engine manufacturer of making a retrograde step in Melbourne, describing it as “undriveable”. However, Ricciardo says there is a clear improvement in Malaysia following a step back to pre-season settings.

“Some things are definitely positive,” Ricciardo said. “From the first lap this morning the bulk of the driveability issues we experienced in Melbourne are a lot better. It is now similar to what we had back in testing in February. That was our biggest issue in Melbourne, summarising the weekend, and that predominantly is gone now, which is good.

“We got to do a few set-up things this morning and then we had a few issues this afternoon that limited any real running for us. But even though there are not many laps to show [from the day], there are some positives with at least the engine and driveability side.”

With team-mate Daniil Kvyat setting the fourth fastest time in FP2, Ricciardo says the lap is a sign of the potential of the RB11.

“Yeah, definitely. I think that is fair. From what I remember the second sector was pretty competitive. That is the high speed stuff and where you are really leaning on the car. Again, I think aerodynamically through the faster corners, the car is good. There is definitely some bright signs with that.”

Click here for Friday's gallery from the Malaysian Grand Prix

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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.