Daniel Ricciardo’s caution despite RB’s eye-catching first F1 test day
RB may have caught the eye as F1 pre-season testing began in Bahrain, but Daniel Ricciardo has moved to temper expectations.
Daniel Ricciardo has urged caution about where RB might fit into the competitive order in F1 2024, despite making a promising start to pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The Australian had a standout day driving for Red Bull’s second team - now known as RB following a rebrand over the winter - as he ended the opening day of running fourth in the timesheets.
Ricciardo produced an eye-catching show of pace from his VCARB01 but was keen to downplay expectations after what appeared to be a very encouraging start.
“I think, start of the season, we need to be a little bit cautious,” said Ricciardo, who was just 0.015s slower than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
"I'm sure the long-term and big picture is to be fighting at the front of the midfield. I'm not sure that we start the season there but I think when we came into Abu Dhabi [the 2023 season finale] with some updates the car felt pretty good.
"There's definitely some positives but it's clear that we still have some laptime to find. The general feel and balance is actually OK so it's now just finding a bit more laptime.”
Teammate Yuki Tsunoda helped RB rack up a combined total of 116 laps around the Sakhir track in what turned out to be a solid opening day for the Faenza outfit.
Asked for his early verdict on how the field is shaping up with their respective new challengers, Tsunoda said: "Apart from Red Bull, Aston seems OK, Ferrari as well; I don't know about McLaren.
"If I look in the midfield it feels like Williams are hiding performance a little bit.
"Other than that we are not in a bad place in the midfield fight. We can hopefully continue like this. If we are around the top of the midfield and we can achieve this in the first race, I think that’s a really good start."
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