Daniel Ricciardo believed he had the pace to challenge the Ferraris before his retirement in the early stages of the Bahrian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver dropped out of the race after just five laps when his RB14 appeared to shut down completely. Ricciardo confirmed his car stopped without warning.
“It was a quick death, not a slow and painful one, but I think it’ll be slow and painful because I think I’ve got two hours of adrenaline stored in me.”
Ricciardo was encouraged by how his rivals’ cars appeared to be handling in the opening laps of the race.
“Obviously Seb [Vettel] and Valtteri [Bottas] were ahead, I could see Kimi [Raikkonen]. I don’t know how he’s going at the moment but I could already see he was sliding quite a bit on the rears. It didn’t look like he had a very good car underneath him the first lap or two. I was pretty confident we’d be able to make an impact on them.”
This article will be updated.
2018 F1 season
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
8th April 2018, 18:12
If the past is anything to go by, alternator?
MacLeod (@macleod)
8th April 2018, 19:30
Same as Max last year lose connector?
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
8th April 2018, 18:33
Absolutely gutted for Danny boi. Vettel would be too, if not for this retirement, Hamilton might’ve not been sharing the podium with him.
Andre Furtado (@f1andy83)
8th April 2018, 18:38
I’m pretty sure Red Bull will be Honda powered next year.
Mark
8th April 2018, 18:39
Typical red bull nonsense…coulda woulda shoulda…always have the car to do this or that and it never happens…They need to learn to just shut up and produce results instead of the usual PR nonsense.
Forza Maldonado (@forzamaldonado)
8th April 2018, 19:06
You could argue that for Max’s race, but Daniel’s misfortune was well out of his control.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
10th April 2018, 3:00
Red bull is in a different situation than early 2017 but they’re getting the same results.
In 2017 they were 1 sec or so off the pace ferrari and mercedes had, this time they might be able to challenge both from what I’ve seen, but every time something happens, ricciardo’s red flag penalty, verstappen’s car damage, ricciardo’s car failure, verstappen’s power surge problem and puncture, hopefully next week.
Markp
8th April 2018, 20:13
With a big mouth and no result he is the perfect signing for McLaren.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
9th April 2018, 1:47
@Markp eh? Jesus mate….bitter much? Big mouth for saying his car dies and he believed he could have fought Ferrari? Struth, that’s very harsh!
Ed
9th April 2018, 5:35
Three races in and we still don’t know how good Red Bull really are.
But i can easily see Ricciardo growing unhappy with the team. He is a finisher.
On 4 seasons with them, not even once he was to blame about a retirement. It was always something with the car or being hit by others (and more than once).
.
Markp
9th April 2018, 10:45
Yeah was a bit harsh. I wouldn’t wish McLaren on any driver. It’s just this was one of many hyped up things he has said recently and nothing comes of it. Same with McLaren and in the past Ferrari. To some degrees Merc talked alot pre season which was unusual. If you talk a lot and it does not happen you are then open to ridicule. Many reports from the recent race say hehas signed a letter of intent with Ferrari so I better start liking him.