Renault breaks curfew as Ricciardo takes new F1 chassis

The Renault Formula 1 team broke the curfew overnight at Silverstone to change Daniel Ricciardo’s chassis following Friday practice for the British Grand Prix.

After second practice had concluded at Silverstone, Renault discovered a hairline fracture on the chassis of his R.S.20 and subsequently worked to carry out a chassis change.

As a result, the French manufacturer broke the curfew. Every team has two exemptions allowed throughout the season before incurring a penalty.

“Due to a hairline fracture on the chassis in practice yesterday, Daniel will take a new chassis for the rest of the weekend,” a Renault spokesperson confirmed.

“The team broke the curfew overnight but all is ready for practice today.”

Ricciardo finished opening practice in eighth, just 0.016s behind Renault teammate Esteban Ocon, and returned to the top-10 in the afternoon as he set a time good enough for ninth.

“In terms of our running, we showed some promising signs but, on my side, we lacked a bit of consistency in the car,” the Australian said.

“On some runs, I felt happier than others, so we have some work to do there. As always, it’s pretty close between a group of cars.

“The temperature is dropping tomorrow, so it should change quite a bit.”

Reanult spent Friday tested a number of upgraded parts which the team said “worked as expected”.

“It was a pretty decent day, I would say," added Ocon. "It was good to test the new updates and get a feel for the car on a very quick track, which contains a lot of high-speed corners.

"I found it interesting to test the car in tricky conditions with the heat and quite a strong wind. Overall, it worked quite well but we have a bit of pace to come for qualifying tomorrow. We’ll look through the data and be ready for tomorrow when it matters.”