MOTORSPORT: Daniel dips his lid to Brabham

Daniel Ricciardo is going back to basics as he tries to get his Renault career firing at this weekend's 1000th Formula 1 grand prix in Shanghai, where he is wearing a special helmet paying tribute to Australia's late triple world champion Sir Jack Brabham.

Ricciardo, one of only six of F1's 20 drivers this season without a world championship point, says he and his new team may have been "trying to be too clever" at the two GPs so far this year in Melbourne and Bahrain.

"You're always trying to find the limits, but – for now – maybe we need to keep a more basic approach and just do what we can, do it well and then probably not look for that extra one per cent at the moment," Ricciardo said.

"There's probably bigger time [gains] to come from just being comfortable and working well together.

"That will probably just help me out as well with having a more consistent car throughout the weekend.

"Just simple things, like maybe let the track come to us and try and have a car that I'm comfortable with as opposed to chasing the perfect car.

"Right now I'm probably better off just being in something that I'm comfortable and consistent with."

Ricciardo won the Chinese GP for Red Bull Racing last year, thanks to the timing of a safety car after he'd started from sixth, but he hasn't finished in either Melbourne or Bahrain with Renault's RS19.

Abandoning the pink, green, blue and black helmet he debuted in Melbourne last month for one in the grey that was synonymous with 1959, '60 and – most famously in his Repco-engined BT 19 car – '66 world champion Brabham, carsales.com.au global ambassador Ricciardo is aiming to make it through to the third stint of qualifying for the first time this year.

His priority throughout today's practice and tomorrow's third practice and qualifying will be to sort the RS19's reaction under braking.

"I was a bit of a stand-out [at braking] in a Red Bull car and that's what I want to get back to," Ricciardo said.

"Now it's probably a little bit more on a knife-edge in that area ... I'll lock a wheel here and there, where maybe I wouldn't have last year.

"I'm trying to figure out where the limit is.

"I still want to be that aggressive driver on the brakes.

"That will come with a bit of confidence.

"I'm still going to try and go for it. I still want my competitors to fear me.

"I'm getting there in terms of extracting the maximum and getting more comfortable.

"We'll get there soon. We're heading in the right direction.

"The car clearly has pace ... it's about finding all of it. There's a lot more to come."

Red is the lucky colour of the Chinese and the tifosi, Ferrari's fanatical fans, are hoping it is one of the red cars from F1's most successful team that wins the 1000th GP.

Charles Leclerc was unlucky not to score his maiden win at 21 and in just his second start for the scuderia in Bahrain two weeks ago.

Leclerc is expected to use the same power unit that let him down in Shanghai because Ferrari found that it was a short-circuit in his car's injection system control unit that cost him victory there rather than a cylinder failure or problem with the energy recovery system.

Although Leclerc salvaged a podium, courtesy of the late caution period after the Renaults of Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg retired at the same time, Mercedes took another one-two finish as it had in Melbourne, but with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Valtteri Bottas this time.

Bottas leads the driver standings because of the bonus point he scored for setting the fastest lap in Melbourne, but Hamilton has won five times in Shanghai, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel only once (in 2009, his first season with Red Bull Racing) and Bottas never.

The horsepower the Ferraris had in Bahrain may give them the edge on Shanghai's long straights.

While former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone reckons this year's calendar should have been rejigged to hold the 1000th world championship GP at Britain's Silverstone, where the first was held in 1950, Red Bull demon Max Verstappen has highlighted that Shanghai provides "a lot of opportunities to fight and set up overtakes".

The 2016 Chinese GP had a record 128 overtakes.

Bernie Ecclestone has attended more GPs than anyone but won't be in Shanghai for the 1000th.

The 88-year-old says one reason is that he's still recovering from a recent bout of food poisoning, but he's also miffed that new owners Liberty Media don't consult him.

"I am still an employee with this incomprehensible position [chairman emeritus], but no one asks for my opinion," Ecclestone said.

"I want to be involved, but I know I cannot."

Ecclestone thinks Liberty will eventually lose interest in F1, doubting that it will increase revenues let alone profits.

But the one-time tsar who – along with late Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker – lamented the loss of F1's traditional sounds when V6 hybrid power units were introduced in 2014 sees F1's long-term future being electric and therefore almost silent.

Although the Formula E electric open-wheeler series is having trouble gaining fans, Ecclestone said it was sure to grow because of manufacturer involvement – with Porsche and Mercedes now preparing to enter.

"It's a different form of entertainment, but Formula E will get much, much bigger and better ... and Formula 1 will suffer because of that."