Daniel Ricciardo: Finished sixth in Melbourne
Daniel Ricciardo hopes Red Bull can have a much "smoother" race in next week’s Malaysia GP after their difficulties in Melbourne.
With Mercedes dominating the first race of the season, Red Bull struggled by contrast as Ricciardo came home a lapped sixth in his home grand prix.
Reliability problems for new team-mate Daniil Kvyat, meanwhile, meant that the Russian couldn’t even start.
Speaking afterwards, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner criticised engine supplier Renault, labelling their updated power unit “undriveable” and saying that progress had gone backwards over the winter.
And with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finishing half-a-minute clear of the rest, Horner also suggested that the FIA should rein in the world champions’ advantage.
There have even been suggestions that Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz might look to sell up. Ricciardo, however, is focusing on the matter in hand.
“I’m feeling good coming into Malaysia, I know we have a lot of things to improve on and I’m optimistic that we can achieve some of those in Malaysia, which will give us some more performance. I’m just hanging out waiting to drive now, but it’s good,” Ricciardo said in a press release on Friday.
“The season has started now and I think if anyone had any first race jitters they’re gone and I think Malaysia should run a lot smoother for everyone.”
Although Kvyat summed up his first race weekend at Red Bull as “challenging” he added that they “learnt many things”.
“Of course, the race wasn’t as I would’ve liked but it happened this way and now I’m just looking forward to the challenges ahead,” the 20-year-old said. “It’s good Malaysia is so soon.
“After Australia, I wanted to leave the weekend behind me as soon as possible and start focusing on Malaysia. We have good potential which we will be looking to use and hope to extract.”
Daniil Kvyat: Lack of oil pressure caused retirement in Australia
Meanwhile, Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan revealed that the gearbox failure forcing Kvyat’s withdrawal on his way to the grid last weekend was caused by a lack of oil pressure.
“As a factory we have been working hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Monaghan said. “Last year the progress we made from the third test to the first race was significant and one of our strengths is our development rate.
“We have the best team in place to repeat our success and we are working as hard as we can to improve as much as possible ahead of Malaysia.”
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