Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Hockenheimring, 2018

Ricciardo’s retirement “particularly frustrating” for Red Bull

2018 German Grand Prix

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says Daniel Ricciardo’s retirement from the German Grand Prix was “particularly frustrating” as he had already started at a disadvantage due to a power unit change penalty.

Ricciardo started at the back of the grid after taking a long-expected penalty as Red Bull chose this race to change multiple elements on his power unit. The team wanted to take the penalty ahead of next week’s race at the Hungaroring where they expect to be competitive.

“Daniel was making good progress from the back of the grid after incurring his engine penalties,” said Horner.

“Unfortunately, on lap 29 Daniel’s engine failed, which is particularly disappointing alongside the penalties that he had already incurred.”

Ricciardo believes his failure was engine related.

“On lap 29 I heard something strange when I was downshifting for turn six,” he said. “Once I accelerated out of the corner I lost power and the engine started to sound pretty sick.

“I got on the radio straight away and expected the team to ask me to pull over, which they did. I don’t know the specifics but it was some sort of engine failure which is obviously pretty frustrating after taking the penalties today.”

Ricciardo’s retirement is his fourth from the 11 races so far this year. Three of his non-finishes were caused by technical faults.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Ricciardo’s retirement “particularly frustrating” for Red Bull”

  1. Renault are really punishing Red Bull. Unfortunately I think the move to Honda will be also be difficult for the team.

    1. soundscape (@)
      23rd July 2018, 7:24

      What does this even mean? Is the suggestion that this was somehow a deliberate sabotage by Renault at the factory? Even though the engine did countless KMs in practice and qualifying? Absurd.

      1. You’re right. Renault’s punishment of Redbull is at pretty much the same level it’s been at for the last few years.

  2. Another penalty on track that will suit the bulls..Ric is out of luck of late

  3. Practice for next year maybe? Replace multiple components only to park the car

  4. It’s only going to get worse as the season continues as Renault seems to have a problem maintaining supply of PU’s and parts.

    Despite Renault consistently bangin on about their focus on reliability holding back performance gains, it’s become apparent that they are not delivering either.

  5. Renault still clearly has a compromised power unit running on unicorns and false promises. It may be race winning, but who knows what Red Bull did to those motors (i.e. turned up to 11) to get the chance to win.

    1. The one in Monaco they turned to 4 :)

  6. All very reminiscent of Torro Rosso last year after announcing Honda engines…

    1. @scottie, it may be but possibly not because of the move to a new supplier.

      Last year Renault had an issue supplying Toro Rosso because they ran out of “parts”. In reality they ran out of spare parts because they didn’t anticipate the number of failures that occurred because “Renault’s focus is on reliability” (ask Cyril).
      I have no doubt that they’ll be facing similar shortages this year because they only budget for a finite number of PU’s and spares for them, and I would think that they wouldn’t in their worst nightmares have expected the number of failures that they have already had (particularly in Dan Ric’s car).

      It’s little wonder that RBR has elected to go to Honda as their current supplier has really not covered themselves in glory on any front.

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