Daniel Ricciardo believes the strides RB have made since the beginning of 2024 showcase the side is moving towards “something much more powerful” in Formula 1.
The revelation that RB would capitalise on increased technical ties with Red Bull had heightened suspicions the squad could be in line to challenge the top five teams.
But expectations that the VCARB 01 would resemble the title-winning Red Bull RB19 car were soon dispelled and RB endured a rather subdued opening to the season.
However, the Faenza-based squad has become a regular points scorer and updates in Miami saw Ricciardo fourth in the Sprint and Yuki Tsunoda seventh in the race.
RB maintained that momentum into last weekend as both cars qualified inside the top 10 at Imola, although sluggish starts would see it rewarded with a single point.
But with RB having split the Mercedes cars and beat Aston Martins on one-lap conditions, Ricciardo sees the positives in RB’s disappointment at Tsunoda’s 10th spot.
“It was something that straight away I think Laurent [Mekies, team boss] said in the briefing after the race. He said: ‘I can see everyone in this room is pretty unhappy with today’s result’,” Ricciardo said when asked about RB’s changing ambitions being reflected in it being downbeat with a point.
“And we’ve got a point, you know, and we beat our main rivals, obviously [Lance] Stroll came through, but at least the top six battle is the one that we realistically know we’re in.
“We still got a point on them [Haas] as a team. So that was really good to see. Obviously I wasn’t the one getting the points, so I was naturally a bit disappointed.
“But the atmosphere in the team now is that yeah, we do belong and I think this is the start of something that is much more powerful for us moving forward.”
Both Ricciardo and Tsunoda would rue a recurring start issue compromising their race at Imola, with lost places necessitating earlier stops that left them vulnerable.
The Australian has divulged that the Italian outfit has since adopted a deep dive into the data across all departments to get on top of the problems it has experienced.
“The last few weekends we’ve, let’s say, upped the emphasis on what else can we be doing on starts,” Ricciardo revealed.
“Making sure we’re doing everything we can with preparation, making sure tyre guys are, team clutch, all the normal things, so we’re, of course you always prepare, but we’re just doing even more, because there are teams that are getting better starts than us consistently, so clearly we’re missing something and we’re just trying to figure out what it is.
“When you’re, let’s say, lacking something maybe, a lot of the time you’ve got to challenge yourself.
“Am I being open-minded enough? Are we a little bit stuck in our ways, are our processes, what can we do?
“So we’re just trying to challenge each other more and more. Now all we can do obviously in a few days turnaround, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
