Visa Cash App The RB F1 Team feels the Belgian Grand Prix got off to a “tough” start after Friday’s two practice sessions.
Conditions could become even tougher over the weekend, with rain in the forecast and Yuki Tsunoda facing a significant grid penalty for the main Grand Prix.
In Friday’s first practice session, Daniel Ricciardo recorded the 13th fastest time, while Tsunoda was slightly further back in 16th place. Their struggles continued in FP2, with Ricciardo finishing 14th and Tsunoda in 20th place.
Ricciardo made some good points in the session but acknowledged some challenges ahead of the VCARB in the team’s post-practice media report.
“It’s good to be able to run in dry conditions today, because parts of the track have been resurfaced and there is more grip in many corners, which is good,” said Ricciardo. “Today was a proper test day for us, we tried a lot of different things and I’m more happy with FP2 than this morning. We still need to make a few tenths for tomorrow, but it might rain and if qualifying is the only wet session then we won’t have much time to find grip. It will be a challenge for all of us, but it looks like it will be dry on Sunday so at least we can rest easy knowing what we learned today.”
Tsunoda started from the back of the grid so had Friday to spend time learning.
“We tried a few things today, and there are some areas we want to improve on tomorrow. We will have a grid penalty on Sunday because we installed new parts for the power unit, so we want to get as much out of it as we can this weekend,” Tsunoda said. “The track is new in places, very smooth and has more grip. It’s a good change and tomorrow is a good opportunity to learn more and find the best set-up. Normally we perform pretty well in the rain, but the conditions are mixed this weekend, which adds another element.”
Because VCARB fitted Tsunoda’s RB01 with an all-new power unit, with all six components exceeding the legal allocation for a season, he will drop 10 places on the grid as a result and will technically receive a 60-place grid penalty, meaning that regardless of how Saturday’s qualifying goes, he will sit at the back of the grid on Sunday.
VCARB Racing Director Alan Parmain summed up the day’s events:
“It was a tough day for us. Yuki will start from the back of the grid on Sunday due to a PU penalty, so we are now focusing a bit more on race preparation,” said Parmain. “We have some work to do to get more rear grip, so we will work on that overnight, testing some set-up items in the simulator with a view to trying it on the car in FP3. On the positive side, Daniel’s long-run pace was not only fast, but also with very little degradation. We are much more confident in our long-run pace than our short-run pace, so we will aim to improve on that tomorrow.”
