Ricciardo: “There is still a lot of potential to exploit”

In the hierarchy, entirely honorary, of the first week of the Barcelona winter tests, the Renault RS19 Nico Hulkenberg et Daniel Ricciardo are in good place with the best time for the German in 1'17"393, when the Australian, new driver of the Losange, finished in 5th place in 1'17"785.

Performances achieved on the softest C5 tires provided by Pirelli during this week of testing, but which must be interpreted with the greatest caution, as is the case every year during these first pre-season tests.

Renault F1 Team focused above all, like all the teams, on accumulating kilometers to improve reliability and discover the new 2019 package. A few technical problems did not fail to mark the week, including a broken rear wing for Ricciardo, but nothing to alarm the French management.

“On the one hand, we are satisfied with our work because we have covered the equivalent of seven races this week, but on the other hand, we experienced slight reliability issues, explains Nick Chester, chassis manager.

Discovering them from the start, however, allowed us to find solutions to improve our reliability for the second week and Melbourne.

Between the major changes to the regulations and the car's systems, we chose to do a lot of work on overall performance to identify the main characteristics of the RS19. »

“The week was quite good, since we gradually increased the pace even if we are never on the attack during testing, proclaims Ricciardo for his part. It was positive and educational to try different configurations and discover new sensations.

We haven't revealed everything yet and there is still a lot of potential to be exploited. Everyone is close at the moment, but we seem pretty consistent. We're still a little conservative, but we'll see what happens when we pick up the pace. »

During the presentation of the RS19 a few days ago, Cyril Abiteboul and the managers of Renault F1 Team had also indicated that they had focused their work on pure engine performance for 2019. Enough to leave great hopes for the Viry and enstone.

But a good number of teams did not attempt the absolute hunt for the clock this week, notably the Team Ferrari, which had not tested the softest tires to establish its chronometric references. The hierarchy seen this week in Barcelona could therefore be very different next Friday.

Nico Hülkenberg will begin the week of driving on Tuesday morning, with Daniel Ricciardo expected at the wheel of the RS19 in the afternoon.

Discover the full report and analysis of the first week of the winter tests in Barcelona, ​​carried out by our special correspondents in Catalonia, in issue 2205 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and from this Wednesday on newsstands.

Don't forget that our F1 2019 Guide is also available in digital version and on newsstands.