Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were content with their day’s work at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
With the unique layout of Interlagos meaning half of the circuit plays to the strength of the RB12 while the other reveals their biggest weakness, the team are having to find a balance between maximising downforce and top speed.
On Friday morning, it appeared they had done just that as Verstappen split the two Mercedes with Ricciardo just behind, however, in the afternoon the Silver Arrows stretched their legs moving over half a second clear of the field.
Slightly more worrying for Red Bull was how the two Williams were also able to jump ahead in the afternoon demoting their two drivers to fifth and sixth.
With the team usually not running anywhere near full potential, that order may be skewed. Certainly, that’s what Verstappen thinks as he looked once again to the long run pace he was able to achieve, even if over a single lap things appeared less comfortable.
“I think first practice was actually pretty good,” the Dutchman said. “We made some changes for the second practice and the short run was not fantastic.
“But we managed to turn it around again for the long run, that all looked really good. Mercedes still look too far ahead but then after them we are there.”
Ricciardo echoed many of his teammate’s thoughts admitting if they want to challenge Mercedes, they are relying on the weather.
“We are a bit closer [to Mercedes] than we expected,” the Australian revealed. They are half a second, and there is a bit more to improve with the car, but the rain will help us.
“If we really want a chance to win that will be the way to go.”
There is talk as to just how much the Red Bull duo would be willing to potentially ‘interfere’ with the outcome of the Mercedes title battle, particularly as Lewis Hamilton needs Nico Rosberg to have a poor result if he is to have a chance of retaining his championship.
Channel 4’s Lee McKenzie even revealed this little snippet in a tweet of an interesting conversation that may or may not have taken place.
Twitter: Could Red Bull get in the way of Mercedes’ title fight at the #BrazilGP? A little bird told Lee… #C4F1 https://t.co/LyLaaR6Xii (@C4F1)
Regardless, Ricciardo has said he and the team will look to capitalise on any ‘tentativeness’ from Rosberg which could certainly be the case if any rain arrives.
If it was to stay dry, maintaining life in the soft tyres looked a major issue for the drivers in practice as track temperatures exceeded 50 degrees Celsius, causing significant graining.
However, Ricciardo played down the problem as cooler weather comes with the increased threat of rain over the weekend.
“It looks like the temperature is dropping quite a lot tomorrow, by 20 degrees the track temperature, so that will make our lives a bit easier looking after the tyres,” he said.
But that’s not to say conserving the Pirelli rubber remains an area to be addressed.
“There are a lot of low-speed corners here, so you are constantly heavy on the throttle,” the 27-year-old explained. “A lot of changes in direction [too], so it is really loading up the tyres.”
It will be interesting to see just what the pecking order and the gaps truly are between Mercedes and their rivals when everything is turned up on Saturday.
It will also give us a truer indication as to whether Nico Rosberg has a lot more to think about.
