Day 3 of the first week of this year’s Formula 1 pre-season testing began with a red flag that soon turned into a steady and slightly problematic day for Daniel and Red Bull Racing. Here’s your recap into that.
Last update: 1:15am GMT | Mar 2
The day began slow for both, with a time 10 to 8 seconds slower than the pace leaders during the first few hours of the testing day focusing on aero info and other things. 45 minutes before the lunch break, Daniel did what was going to be his fastest lap around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 1m21.153s, almost a full second and a half behind Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes.
After a few laps during the afternoon, the Red Bull entered the garage with exhaust issues to see the light again for only 20 more laps, which Daniel said were important to understand the tyres.
Here’s the classification table:
During the post-test interviews, Daniel said he was not worried regarding the pace that Ferrari and Mercedes are showing, even daring to said it was expected but that we haven’t seen everything the Renault engine has to offer.
Our gallery should be updated soon.
“This afternoon we found a problem with the exhaust, we had check that, which took some time, but before that we had a pretty good run of nearly 20 laps, which was important for understanding the tyres.” – Daniel Ricciardo
“I definitely learned more about the car and the tyres today and really started to feel the downforce. For example, Turns 3 and 9 are now pretty impressive. I think when we start doing 60 laps in the heat you’re going to see some physical limits being pushed for us drivers.” – Daniel Ricciardo
“It’s obviously not ideal when you encounter the kind of issues we had today and on Monday. It’s unfortunate for Daniel, as these issues manifested themselves on the days he was in the car, but he understands the nature of testing and he’s actually pretty upbeat about how the car feels and how it’s behaving. Ultimately it’s about what you learn from the laps you do get on the board rather than just running for the sake of it and so we’ve learned a lot so far.” – Guillaume Rocquelin
Daniel Ricciardo Daily 