‘Daniel was Making Good Progress’ – Red Bull

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has said that Daniel Ricciardo’s retirement in Germany was “particularly frustrating”. What upset him even more was the fact that Ricciardo already had a disadvantage due to a power unit change penalty.

Ricciardo was forced to start from 19th on the grid after taking a long-expected penalty. Red Bull had earmarked this race to change multiple elements on his power unit. The team’s original plan was to take the penalty ahead of next week’s race at the Hungaroring. The Austrian marquee expects to be competitive at the high-downforce circuit.

“Daniel was making good progress from the back of the grid after incurring his engine penalties,” said Horner.

“Unfortunately, on lap 29 Daniel’s engine failed, which is particularly disappointing alongside the penalties that he had already incurred.”

Ricciardo is under the impression that his retirement was engine related.

“On lap 29 I heard something strange when I was downshifting for turn six,” he said. “Once I accelerated out of the corner I lost power and the engine started to sound pretty sick.

“I got on the radio straight away and expected the team to ask me to pull over, which they did. I don’t know the specifics but it was some sort of engine failure which is obviously pretty frustrating after taking the penalties today.”

This is Ricciardo’s fourth retirement from 11 races so far this year. Three of his non-finishes were caused by technical faults. This almost mirrors Max Verstappen’s season in 2017 when he retired from a number of races before the summer break.

Hopefully for Red Bull’s sake Ricciardo can sort out his issues and take the fight to Mercedes and Ferrari. When Daniel pulled over, the team ordered teammate Verstappen to turn down the wick. The reason was that they wanted to ensure that at least one car survived the ordeal.