Daniel Ricciardo, RB, Shanghai International Circuit, 2024

Chassis change giving Ricciardo “more confidence” in Shanghai

RaceFans Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Daniel Ricciardo says he’s feeling more confident this weekend after RB gave him a new chassis.

In brief

Chassis change giving Ricciardo “more confidence”

Daniel Ricciardo says he is feeling much more confident in his RB this weekend in Shanghai after the team provided him a new chassis.

Ricciardo has failed to score a point over the opening four rounds of the championship, while team mate Yuki Tsunoda has scored seven over the last two races. But after finishing 11th in the sprint race and qualifying 12th for today’s grand prix, Ricciardo says he’s feeling better in the car.

“So far, it’s been a more positive weekend for us and my best one of the year,” Ricciardo said. “We changed the chassis this weekend and I feel the car better and have more confidence in it, so that’s encouraging, but it’s just one track.

“I’m excited to go racing again tomorrow. The sprint this morning has been encouraging, so I hope we can show a bit more in the long run. I think P12 is a decent place to start and offers the opportunity to try catching the ones in front and get some points.”

Red flag cost me set of softs – Russell

Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free

George Russell believes he had an opportunity to qualify higher than eighth for the Chinese Grand Prix had he not been compromised by Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Q2 crash.

Russell was the only driver on a push lap when Sainz spun at the final corner in Q2, losing the chance to set his first timed lap in the session. Russell says having to run an extra set of new softs in Q2 compromised his final session.

“My first lap in Q2 was looking very strong but the red flag forced us to abort,” Russell said. “We had to use another set of new tyres to progress to Q3.

“Without that, we would have had two new sets for the final part of qualifying and it could have been a different outcome but who knows. We are in that fight between P3 and P8 and, unfortunately, we’ve found ourselves at the back end of that battle in the last few races in qualifying.”

Hulkenberg reprimanded

The Chinese Grand Prix stewards reprimanded Nico Hulkenberg for passing two rivals in the fast lane of the pit lane at the start of Q1.

Although the stewards noted that the Haas driver asked his team if he could do so over the radio and was told he could, this was against the regulations.

Hulkenberg will keep his ninth place on the grid for today’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Social media

Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Comment of the day

With Charles Leclerc expressing some concerns with how Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr raced him in the sprint race, Yellow Baron yearns for drivers to be a little more selfish…

The mentality of drivers has changed a lot compared to 15-plus years ago where they would just fight. Now it’s “I was in a better race situation because I saved tyres.” “Why is he fighting me harder than the rest,?”, after he just held his line at high speed against another guy then made a dive before the back straight. Same with Lando Norris, he does this all the time.

It’s as if they think there is no drivers championship and they should always race for the team. It’s dog-eat-dog and there’s no other way about it. Maybe Charles and Lando and whoever else should ask if they can share team radio with their team mate and offer to start a joint enterprise with them too. Otherwise, just race for goodness’ sake. Especially in a ‘sprint’ race.
Yellow Baron

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Vincent, The Kef, Cyberaxiom and Dylan Mota!

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

7 comments on “Chassis change giving Ricciardo “more confidence” in Shanghai”

  1. Profile Photo

    Jere (@jerejj)
    21st April 2024, 5:26

    The monocoque change impact will become more evident if he also out-performs in Miami & even more so in Imola with the standard weekend format.

    Maybe, but tyres are meant to be used for driving.

  2. Profile Photo

    EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
    21st April 2024, 6:30

    #F1 has always been more endurance than Sprint.

    I respect Mike Caulfield’s position and knowledge, but curiously – even though it is longer than the officially titled ‘sprint’ event – I have always considered F1 as a type of sprint racing anyway. Maybe this was a little more accurate in the days of more durable tyres, unlimited engines etc, and of course we would prefer the drivers to be a little more ‘flat out’ for the duration than they are, but as demonstrated by the 400 meters in athletics, a sprint does not necessarily have to be the very shortest most pedal to the metal event.

    For me endurance is the likes of WEC (to state the obvious).

    1. S
      21st April 2024, 6:52

      It’s an interesting tweet, isn’t it…
      Most people who feel that strongly that their industry (or even just a substantial part of it) is not right for them would leave it and find something more suitable and rewarding to do. Perhaps he should go work for a team in WEC if all he wants is the endurance aspect.

      Agree very much with you on how I see F1 – GP’s aren’t really endurance, they a long sprint, however the teams do now approach them more now with an endurance mindset. Every little detail is controlled and managed by the team rather than the driver, and the fact that every part of the car now needs to last a long time (in racing terms) only reinforces that aspect. They are always looking at the bigger, longer term picture, just as an endurance competitor does.

      If he’s really that against sprints, he can take his own advice… I don’t think too many people would miss him – I even had to google his name to find out who he is.

  3. SteveP
    21st April 2024, 7:09

    Chassis change giving Ricciardo “more confidence”

    From the comments of various ex-F1 drivers, this is pretty much a ‘pixie dust’ effect – if you believe it works, then it works.

  4. Profile Photo

    GT Racer (@gt-racer)
    21st April 2024, 13:00

    Will apparently be a vote next week to push through a new points system for next year that will hand out points to every finisher.

    1. Profile Photo

      GT Racer (@gt-racer)
      21st April 2024, 13:01

      Correction.

      Will extend the points from 10th to 12th.

      1. S
        21st April 2024, 13:23

        points to every finisher.

        Is what they actually need to do – it solves so many problems. They are still counting all positions for both championships anyway – but actually giving them a visible number for everyone to see at a glance is just basic common sense…

        Which is precisely why they won’t do it.

        Extending points to still not include all finishers is just a complete waste of time.

Comments are closed.