Red Bull: We’re missing 165 horsepower to the leading Mercedes, about 30km/h on the straights! 28 February, 2014 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull follows Kimi Raikkonen in Bahrain Crisis-struck world champions, Red Bull are hoping to merely survive the fast approaching Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the 2014 F1 World Championship season. The reigning world champion team looked to have taken a step forward as the final pre-season test began on Thursday in Bahrain. At the wheel of the troubled Renault-powered RB10, Daniel Ricciardo had a promising morning – until the latest technical problems left him stranded in the garage for most of the rest of the day. Afterwards, the Australian was his usual upbeat self, ”From the outside, it looks like we are not doing many laps and that the times are not good.” Daniel Ricciardo with Christian Horner and Helmut Marko “But as a team we are confident that we will be with the frontrunners,” Ricciardo insisted. “It is difficult to really predict what will happen, but we can say that we will not dominate in Melbourne as we did at the end of last season.” Red Bull’s always-blunt Marko, however, sounded a less positive note, he told Sport Bild, “We have to somehow survive Melbourne.” He said Renault’s troubled ‘power unit’ means that Red Bull is often missing 165 horse power to the leading Mercedes, “which is about 30km/h on the straights! “That’s why we have sent a taskforce to France,” revealed Marko, referring to Renault’s Viry headquarters. ”Our people have just helped Renault write a new software programme.” Screens around the Red Bull Racing garage in Bahrain Renault says that it has made real progress, which is timely given the FIA’s looming engine development ‘freeze’ deadline of Friday. “Yes, some problems we are yet to understand,” the French company’s Remi Taffin acknowledged in a recent interview. “But over the past six years, approximately 95 per cent of the parts in the V8 engine were refined compared to the first version,” he said. “We have made a big step forward between the first test and now with the new power unit. Yes we’re a little behind schedule, we still have certain problems, but they are gradually being resolved,” Taffin added. (GMM)
Posted on: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 15:47:04 +0000
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