The Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo shared how a previous incident at McLaren led him to request a chassis change for his team RB Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix. Ricciardo had joined Red Bull’s sister team with hopes of impressing enough to return to the main team. However, he consistently lagged behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the first four stages of the season, leading to discussions about a chassis swap after his early elimination in Australia. RB’s Race Director, Alan Permane, confirmed that a new chassis was being prepared and would be sent to Shanghai for Ricciardo to use. Despite Permane’s assurance that there were no defects in the current chassis, Ricciardo qualified 0.055 seconds behind Tsunoda in Suzuka, leaving him still curious about the potential impact of the swap.
Ricciardo’s decision was influenced by a previous experience at McLaren in 2021. After winning at Monza, he found himself significantly slower than his teammate Lando Norris in Sochi, trailing by two seconds. This led McLaren to retire the chassis used at Monza and provide Ricciardo with a different one for the Russian Grand Prix. However, he performed poorly in Russia and requested to switch back to the original chassis for the following race in Austin, where his performance improved. These experiences left Ricciardo skeptical about the performance of certain chassis and motivated him to ensure he had the most suitable one.
It is not uncommon for teams to address concerns of underperforming drivers through chassis swaps. A similar situation occurred in 2020 with Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari. In his final season with the team, Vettel struggled to keep up with his teammate Charles Leclerc and opted for a chassis swap. Despite Ferrari’s assurance that the previous chassis was not damaged, Vettel’s performance did not improve and he finished the season 65 points behind Leclerc.
Unfortunately, Ricciardo’s promising performance in Japan was cut short by a collision with Alex Albon’s Williams on the first lap of turn 3, resulting in the elimination of both cars. While Tsunoda managed to secure a single point for RB with another appearance in Q3, Ricciardo still has no points to his name.
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