MOTORSPORT: Bad to worse for Ricciardo

As unpalatable as it is, it’s going to be more steps backwards for Daniel Ricciardo in Formula One before Red Bull Racing can take a step forward again.

Ricciardo has a new RB11 chassis for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix and it will be fitted with the fifth Renault V6 hybrid power unit he’s used this season, which will incur a 10-place grid penalty.

On a circuit in Spielberg – a home circuit for Red Bull, which owns it – that won’t suit the RB11s any better than the Montreal street circuit in Canada two weeks ago Ricciardo will be lucky to be in the top 10 fastest drivers and the penalty could drop him to the very back of the grid. And it’s the same story for his Russian teammate Daniil Kyvat.

Despite occasional efforts to smooth the strained relationship between Renault and Red Bull in recent months it has become more toxic overnight.

The billionaire who owns the energy drink company that owns RBR, Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, has accused Renault’s poor power units of destroying the team’s enjoyment of F1.

“Beside taking our time and money they have destroyed our enjoyment and motivation, because no driver and no chassis in this world can compensate for this horsepower deficit,” Mateschitz said.

“How many more things have to happen before we lose all enjoyment?”

Renault Sport’s managing director Cyril Abiteboul already was concerned that Red Bull’s public criticism over recent months had shattered the confidence of those working in the French company’s F1 operations.

Mateshitz’s latest outburst will only have worsened that feeling and further damaged the relationship.

He said F1’s aerodynamic regulations also had scuppered RBR and that, even if the team could get out of the final year of its contract to use Renault power next season, a customer engine from another supplier would leave it with no chance of competing for world titles.

“Then we lose all pleasure and we are bit-part players,” Mateschitz said.

Adding fuel to these fires, Mark Webber – the Australian who won nine GPs with RBR before turning to sports car racing – has bucketed F1 generally.

In an interview released by Red Bull, Webber said modern F1 was failing its fans and drivers and needed to become more gladiatorial and less artificial.

“The championship itself and F1 itself is not in great shape,” Webber said.

“I think we’re disappointed with it as F1 fans ... all the drivers that I'm talking with, we’re disappointed with what’s going on with the cars, the lap times, it’s just not stimulating for the drivers.

“And this is rubbing off. The fans can see this.

“Over the last five or six years they (the sport’s rulemakers) have got many, many, many things wrong to try and make the sport better and it became a sniff too artificial.”

F1’s powerbrokers have been looking at ways of making the world’s premier motor racing championship more exciting from 2017, without drivers having to coast to save tyres and fuel, but they are a long way from agreement on solutions.

And Webber said that making the cars five or six seconds a lap faster would not be enough.

“There's a lot of questions to be answered and they need to act fast on getting the fans engaged again,” Webber said.

“MotoGP, my God, not many people can do that – and that’s why people watch.

“[Football superstars] Messi, Ronaldo, this is what people love to switch a TV on for.

“We’ve got a big chance here to keep F1 like that, but it’s not like that at the moment. It’s a shame. They’ve dulled it down.

“The reference point that we now have is horrendous in terms of pace.

“It needs to be on a different level. They need to make heavy changes and get the drivers stimulated again and that’ll wash off on the fans.”

Meanwhile, Ricciardo is struggling to remain optimistic amid the frustrations of an uncompetitive car after winning three GPs last season in his first year with RBR while his then-teammate, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, won none.

Ricciardo’s best finish this year has been fifth on Monaco’s tight street circuit where Renault’s lack of power was less of a disadvantage and where Kyvat was fourth – RBR’s best result of the year.

In Canada two weeks ago Ricciardo could only finish 13th – and a lap down – on another street circuit where he had scored his first F1 victory a year earlier.

“We understood quite a lot post-Canada,” Ricciardo said, without further explanation.

“We come here now with let’s say a fresh approach on it all. I have a new chassis.

“We know the track doesn’t realty suit everything for our performance right now, but hopefully we’ll have a good weekend here in front of the home fans.”

Ricciardo is talking hope, rather than with confidence.

This is a 25-year-old, potentially approaching the peak of his career, who is locked in for at least another 18 months with a team incapable of winning at the minute – and perhaps before the end of 2016.

Ricciardo admitted he had “expressed some frustration in Canada” as the seriousness of RBR’s plight hit home.

But last night he said: “Unfortunately, sometimes, you have to be a bit patient and for sure I’m set now with Red Bull and I would love to try and get back on the top step with them.

“Yeah, just got to be patient and just try and work out with them as a team and hopefully let out some frustration on track if I need to in a good positive way.

“But yeah, for now obviously my target is to get back on top with them and then we will see.

“The future is long but short-term that’s where I look.”