Daniel Ricciardo finished way behind Nico Hulkenberg in 15th position at the end of FP2. The Australian was more than a second slower than his teammate, who instead stunned everyone by putting his Renault no.27 in 5th place.
Ricciardo had a frustrating start to his 2019 F1 campaign in Melbourne, where he earlier broke his front wing on race start, and then had to retire from the race altogether.
But his woes continued during the first 2 Practice sessions of the Bahrain Grand Prix, as Ricciardo could only manage to clock a lap time of 1:30.848s, while Hulkenberg went as fast as 1:29.669s.
“It was quite difficult, especially on the qualifying sim in the afternoon,” commented a puzzled and frustrated Ricciardo.
“I mean, I was a long way off, so we are just trying to figure out why.
"I think once we did the long run on high fuel it seemed a bit more representative again, but I certainly feel it can be better.”
Ricciardo does believe that a combination of factors is in play, that is hindering any performance gains in his RS19 this weekend. He refused to point finger to a particular aspect of the car saying: “I'll try and answer it well instead of saying more grip. Er, traction.
Well, it's not just traction – there's a few things we're trying to improve: driveability, ride and response of the car, things like this.
"I feel there's quite a few thing that are fighting against each other in a way, so once we clean that up, then hopefully that improves the traction.”
The ace Australian driver made a move to Renault from his long time employers, Red Bull Racing, last year. With hopes of a potential world title, and more success to follow, Daniel Ricciardo is confident in Renault to provide him with a competitive machinery.
Renault had earlier made claims that the team made significant gains in its engine development during the winter. The Enstone based team itself is in a quest to fight with the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari at the front, as well as become a winning force in F1 again.
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