Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda relishing the upcoming fight at the British Grand Prix
Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda relishing the upcoming fight at the British Grand Prix
The Formula 1 grid is headed to the historic Silverstone circuit this week for the British Grand Prix, the site of the final race of what has been a thrilling racing tripleheader.
For the team at Visa Cash App RB F1 Team, they are aiming to end the tripleheader on a positive note.
VCARB rolled out a series of upgrades at the Spanish Grand Prix, but those improvements to the RB01 did not provide immediate results as both Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda finished outside the points in Barcelona. Ricciardo managed to bring something home for the team in Austria, as his ninth-place finish in the Austrian Grand Prix added two points to the team’s tally.
Now the team is aiming to be “in the fight for points” at this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
“It’s always fun having three races in three weeks, good or bad it quickly gives you another shot at it! Although challenging, we [learned] a fair bit in Austria and we’re hoping to build on that progress,” said Ricciardo in the team’s media preview. “We’ve got our heads down and definitely aiming to be in the fight for points come Sunday at Silverstone. The track itself is just so much fun, high speed, full commitment and it’s always a buzzing atmosphere. Hopefully, the English summer turns it on and we’re all enjoying some sunshine. Bring it on!”
On the other side of the garage, Tsunoda expressed more “confidence” in the upgraded RB01, but also indicated that he is looking ahead to having three practice sessions to get a feel for the car around the high-powered Silverstone circuit.
“After Austria, I feel more confident as we made progress with the car and at least this weekend, we have three hours of Free Practice to understand it better,” said Tsunoda. “The crowd is incredible, the fans are very nice, they don’t just cheer the British drivers and they are passionate about motorsport.
“As for the track itself, I look forward to driving there; it’s historic, it’s high speed and also, I can’t really call it a home track, but we do have a facility not far away, making it an important race in many respects, so I’d like to have a good result there. There are some great sections to drive, obviously, Maggotts-Becketts and I also like the high speed long right hander at Stowe.”
Jody Egginton, the team’s Technical Director, illustrated how the series of upgrades have allowed VCARB to bring an “optimized” package to the track this weekend.
“As the last leg of a triple header, Silverstone is upon us only a very short time after what was a very intense Austrian GP weekend for VCARB, but we have [learned] a lot about our recent aero updates in Austria and from this we have now been able to converge to a single [optimized] aero package for Silverstone,” added Egginton. “It has also been good to see the results from these experiments feeding directly into our aero development process, which I am confident will provide a tangible benefit to the next planned aero updates.”
While Ricciardo was able to add those two points to the team’s tally with his P9 in Austria, VCARB did see Haas creep closer to them in the Constructors’ Championship with a double-points result for Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg. Between that and the ongoing speculation about Ricciardo’s future with the team, there are certainly many reasons to keep an eye on VCARB this weekend.