Ricciardo: New Renault unit still lacking

Daniel Ricciardo has revealed that Renault’s latest update has not delivered the power boost Red Bull had wanted.

Although the Aussie was fifth at the Interlagos circuit, two-tenths up on team-mate Daniil Kvyat, he was still 1.2s off the pace set by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.

It was not the result that Ricciardo had wanted especially as he is set for a 10-place grid penalty after swapping to the new power unit.

“At the moment we did not find too much,” he stated. “Danny had the old one and I had the new one. It does not look like much, so we will see.”

He did, however, concede that it is still early days as Friday’s run in Brazil was the new engines first outing.

“It is just the first day of running it on the track, so I am sure that the guys will look tonight and see if there are things we can tune, and for sure try get some more power out of it.

“The positive was that it ran all day, so we got good laps and information. But the power difference for now is not so much.”

As for the driveability, Ricciardo says that is “pretty similar to the old one.

“The positive was I got out the box today and it was fine, everything worked as it should. It feels a little bit fresher but not too much different other than that.”