Ricciardo taking ‘guesswork’ car set-up into Austrian GP

RB arrived in Austria on the back foot after a disappointing Spanish GP last weekend.

New parts introduced for that event saw the squad’s fortunes reverse as Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda struggled for pace.

In opening practice on Friday, engineers devised a split programme with both drivers carrying different spec-machinery.

It was not a golden bullet but it was a step in the right direction, evidenced by the outcome of the Sprint which saw Ricciardo 14th, one spot down from his team-mate.

Changes to parc ferme regulations this year allow teams to tweak there cars between the F1 Sprint and qualifying, with RB using that window to refine the Australian’s car.

However, the eight-time race winner concedes he’ll head into the race with a set-up that is something of a step into the unknown.

“Yes, we certainly seem better,” Ricciardo said of his comfort in the car.

“I think yesterday was a lot [better]. We were still trying a lot and then you have one set [of soft tyres] in Q1, so it was it was always going to be tricky.

“But today, I think having a little bit more of an understanding, having the race this morning, and then we had, I think, five runs in qualifying today, we used five softs, we were able to get the car in a better window.

“So, still not quite a Q3 car, but we’re there.”

Ricciardo only missed out on progressing into Qualifying 3 by 0.015s highlighting the transformation the squad had made.

“From the Sprint race this morning, we did a bit more fine-tuning and I feel like the car was in a better place,” he opined.

“I hope that that means a good thing for tomorrow, but it’s still guesswork, you know, with a full tank of fuel, probably another hot track tomorrow; who knows if we’re going to have Alpine pace or whatever, but hopefully we do.

“Hopefully, it’s a two-stop,” he confessed.

“I think it probably will be with the track conditions, I know some cars save two mediums, some saved two hards so that could be quite a determining factor.”

Sunday’s race begins at 15:00 local time (23:00 AEST).