Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo says the new, upgraded Renault power unit still lacks power after he tested it for the first time in Friday practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Red Bull opted to use the new, upgraded Renault engine this weekend after the French manufacturer decided to use 11 of its 12 engine tokens to develop the power unit.
“I am sure the guys will look tonight and see if there are somethings to tune to get more power out of it,” said Ricciardo to Motorsport.com.
“The positive was it ran all day so we got laps and good information, but the power difference is not so much.”
The Australian believes Williams and Ferrari will be quicker on Saturday.
“Williams and Ferrari will show a bit more speed tomorrow. The engine was reliable, sure, but I want a bit more power from it. It’s not as much as we would like, but at least we got some good laps and good information.”
At a circuit where it should not suit Red Bull, Ricciardo believes if he can qualify in the top five tomorrow then it’d be a good step.
“I think if we can stay top five on this track is good,” he said. “I am not sure if we can expect to stay there tomorrow, but that is the target, so we will try to do that.
“Today was a smooth day so it’s nice to have Fridays like this.”
