Red Bull still behind against Ferrari and Mercedes

Best of the rest behind the Mercedes W08 and Ferrari SF70H, Red Bull Racing still remains behind its rivals designated for the 2017 season. The only survivor in the Milton Keynes clan for Q3, after the engine problems of Max Verstappen in Q1, Daniel Ricciardo was only able to get within nine tenths of Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) to take fifth place on the grid.

An improvement for the Australian, who suffered an accident in qualifying during his home Grand Prix a fortnight ago, and who was then unable to consistently defend his chances in the race. “Personally, I'm happy with what I was able to get out of the car, but obviously both the team and myself want more.

Until today we probably hadn't gotten the best out of the settings, but in qualifying I felt very comfortable with the car. I could go over this again and again, but we still lack performance compared to Mercedes and Ferrari.

However, I felt we improved the balance a lot this morning and we made some bold changes that helped us qualify. »

Rain as Red Bull’s ally?

Unlike his teammate, Max Verstappen was unable to reach Q1, slowed down by a problem linked to the engine block Renault. “Something was malfunctioning in the engine, causing a loss of power, comments the Dutchman.

I tried to put in a lap that could at least get me into Q2, but the problem didn't stop. The team will investigate and I am confident they will be able to resolve this issue for the race. This is obviously very unfortunate, but these things happen and we must not give up. »

Lagging behind in pure performance against the Mercedes and Ferrari, the RB13s could see their salvation come from heaven in the event of rain tomorrow in the race. But Verstappen believes that even in wet conditions, the gap will remain difficult to reduce.

“A little rain tomorrow would definitely help us, admits Verstappen. But I think even in the rain it will be difficult to challenge Ferrari and Mercedes. We need to focus on what we have and do our best. »

The Chinese Grand Prix will begin tomorrow at 8 a.m. French time, and will be followed live with commentary on our website.