Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2019

Ricciardo says Renault must “make bigger steps” in second half of 2019

2019 F1 season

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Renault’s next car upgrade must bring a bigger performance step to keep the team on target to challenge for podiums next year, says Daniel Ricciardo.

He admitted the results have been mixed in his first half-season with the team.

“If I look at Canada, the qualifying, I’d actually say that exceeded some expectation in the first few races,” said Ricciardo. “But then obviously some other races like Austria that was lower than our expectations. So we’ve bounced around in between everything really.

“But now at this halfway point I think we can say alright, we need to do better. If we want to be on target for podiums in 2020 we need to start making bigger steps in the second half of the year.

“Up until now I’m somewhere in the middle with expectations. But I would now expect the second half of the season to have some more regular top six finishes or something.

The team’s last major upgrade came at the French Grand Prix and Ricciardo says the next “proper update” won’t come “until well after the summer break.”

“But I would expect some developments. We brought some updates in France, they weren’t massive, so I think the next batch we bring I would expect to feel a bit more.

“I’m not down or anything because again I would hope that we would be doing better. But I knew that, yes we want to be there, but I knew it was going to take some time. If we stay where we are now till the end of the season then then that’s lower than what we expect.”

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2019 F1 season

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23 comments on “Ricciardo says Renault must “make bigger steps” in second half of 2019”

  1. Electroball76
    12th August 2019, 7:36

    If the Renault engine improves it may be McLaren challenging for those podiums instead.

    1. Electroball76 , I agree the way McLaren are going they may well be challenging for a couple of top three finishes next yr.

    2. Indeed.

      With Seidl in charge, James Key head of design and the driver line up they have? Renault will be lucky to catch up with them now.

      Renault really should be doing better and the team at Enstone really have the talent to be much better but for some reason something isn’t clicking. Maybe it’s time for Abiteboul to go?

  2. Bruno Menilli
    12th August 2019, 7:50

    Ricciardo’s comments regarding ” challenging for podiums in 2020 ” could be a gentle reminder to Renault of a possible get-out clause he has with the team ?

    1. One can only hope.

  3. Yeah well…needing big steps may be a bit of an understatement. Ricciardo and Renault talking about podiums next yr while they are around 1.5 seconds at least off the pace of the RBs. I think it can be done but it’s going to take some work and that’s not even taking into account the improvement of the other teams.

  4. Renault doesn’t deliver: Ricciardo should play his free get-out-of-jail-card and return to Red Bull.

    1. He doesn’t have this card.
      Mostly because RBR will not want him to return.

      1. They’ve just binned Gasly and promoted Albon – a driver who had never driven an F1 car before pre season testing THIS YEAR.

        If Ricciardo wanted back in at Red Bull, they’d roll out the red carpet!

        1. Agreed, they still are interested in his services.
          But not sure if Ricci is willing to play second driver act.

  5. To me, Renault still has been the biggest flop of the season so far. 4th in the WCC is starting to get a bit out of reach now due to how limited the available number of points per race for teams other than Mercedes, Ferrari, and RBR are, so clawing back a 43-point deficit to Mclaren over nine races is going to be a tough task, and I don’t hold too much hope on them to achieve the 4th anymore.

    1. The 4th place last year was a bit lucky. Other teams ( like Haas) messed up and Renault picked up the points.

    2. Surely not bigger than Haas? They were billed by some to be in contention for “best of the rest” but between their unpredictable cars and clashing drivers they’ve gone nowhere.

  6. Hey @socksolid,

    Guess these are more of Daniel’s PR lines and lies, right?
    Bet everything is ok with Renault, and they are where they expected themselves to be……

    1. Every driver interview or with any team personell is always 100% PR speak. There are so many sponsors and so much money involved, you can’t just talk badly about the team, other people, etc. It’s like politicians. You won’t get a straight answer out of anyone.

      1. Lol, so according to you everything DR stated are lies, and they are where they wanna be?
        Sigh…..

        1. He didn’t say anything really negative about the team, I’m sure it’s actually worse than what he’s saying.

  7. It is looking more and more like Daniel did “Alonso”.
    Of course it is not his fault, and it is Renault who dropped the ball for whatever reason…

  8. We brought some updates in France, they weren’t massive

    not according to Abiteboul who mentioned a major upgrade for France.

    “We are committed by Paul Ricard to have all the problems and all the delays that have been hurting us at the start of the season sorted out,” explained Abiteboul.

    “So what that means is the engine will be back at full power and even a bit more, and that should be available at Paul Ricard.

    “We will also have a number of upgrades, quite substantial on the aerodynamic side.

    “And last but not least, we will have a number of performance projects that have not been delivered on time, because of all the delays in the rest of the organisation, that will be delivered for Paul Ricard at the latest.”

    1. Cyril thought his hot air would help the aero surfaces on the RS.19, he was mistaken.

      1. Why does he still have his job?

        1. @gpfacts – it’s a question that keeps me up at night :)
          Not so much the “why”, as “how”

  9. How long before Renault just becomes an engine supplier and Mclaten becomes the “works” team.

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