CHINESE GP – RACE
DANIEL RICCIARDO, Finish Position: 9th, Start Position: 7th
“We got into anti-stall on the start, which hasn’t happened before; we have to look and see what happened. It’s frustrating. That shaped the race and in the traffic we struggled to get by. At least some positives are that we learned a few areas where we need to improve, and the smart guys in the team can find a solution. I had a little battle with Daniil. I don’t know if I was optimistic in trying to get past. We were on different race strategies, but we’ll sort it out in the debrief. We underachieved today, but hopefully we find something in the next few days and have a better result in Bahrain.”
DANIIL KVYAT, Finish Position: DNF, Start Position: 12th
“This weekend has been a bit tricky, and not the happy ending we would have liked. I saw a lot of smoke coming from the rear of my car. I am not sure what happened, but the team are investigating. It’s not an easy situation, but we have to stay strong, I am with the team and we will all work on it together, and we’ll keep our heads high heading into Bahrain.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal
“It was a frustrating afternoon for us. Daniel had a poor start which put him in the back of the field. Daniil had a reasonable start; we took the different strategic option to start on the hard tire which struggled to warm up in the early laps, and then his race was unfortunately cut prematurely short with an engine failure. Daniel recovered reasonably well to finish ninth after making some decent overtaking moves, but today’s results were not what we were looking for.”
THIERRY SALVI, Renault
“Obviously a difficult weekend reliability-wise. Daniil had an ICE problem that is under investigation as we need to fully understand the issue before the next race. Daniel worked hard to recover from a very bad start. We have to stay focused on the reliability first to fix our issues as quickly as possible.”
QUALIFYING
DANIEL RICCIARDO, Position: 7, 1:38.534 (3rd Practice – P5, 1:39.020)
“P7 is what we expected for today. I think we are always trying to find a compromise – us and drivers and the engineers – and they have done the best job they can with the settings we are running. With quali we seem to find more pace as the session goes on and that’s important. Driveability has improved and our long-run pace is better. I think we should be closer to Williams tomorrow and I am optimistic we can have a good fight for top five.”
DANIIL KVYAT, Position: 12, 1:39.051 (3rd Practice – P6, 1:39.106)
“I was losing some power today and the team is investigating the reason for this. I am disappointed but we have to keep our heads up. We are working hard to keep moving forward. At this track we have a straight-line speed disadvantage, and we are trying to find a solution for that.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER
“We got everything out of the car there was today, and unfortunately P7 over a single lap is where we currently are. Daniil, after a few issues at the beginning of Q2, which we managed to rectify before his last run, just missed out by less than a tenth of a second for Q3 to line up P12. We saw yesterday our long-run race was respectable, so hopefully we can use that to good effect tomorrow.”
QUOTES
Daniel Ricciardo
Q1: What’s the best thing about going to Shanghai?
Ricciardo: The city’s pretty cool and the markets in particular are a bit of an eye-opener. They seem to have more technology than I ever thought existed. I stay close to the track, so I’ll only really dip into the city for one day, to do a bit of shopping or go out. I’ve found a few nice restaurants in the last few years, and I do like the local food.
Q2: What stands out at the Shanghai International Circuit?
Ricciardo: The paddock – it’s enormous! You need to be an athlete just to get around. As for the track itself, I’d call it “technical.” Turns One, Two and Three are all very long and technical. I don’t think there’s any other corner like it on the calendar. And it’s very, very aggressive on the front tires.
Q3: …It also has the longest straight in F1.
Ricciardo: Yep, it’s long all right. You could drink a can of Red Bull driving down it. I’ve heard quite a few drivers saying it’s pretty boring. Ha! If they think it’s boring in a Formula One car, they should have tried coming here in Formula BMW. I drove here as a kid, all massive afro and enthusiasm and, trust me, it was the sort of straight where I’d definitely have been reaching for a book if I’d had one.
Q4: We’ve seen excessive tire wear in recent years with the life of the option tire being measured in corners rather than laps. What’s that like to drive?
Ricciardo: It’s pretty extreme – but I’d still prefer it to the scenario with a tire that takes three laps to come in. The fact it comes in straight away is awesome. In qualifying, you drive the out-lap like your grandma, desperately trying to not kill it before the flying lap starts
Daniil Kvyat
Q1: What’s the most challenging part of the Shanghai International circuit to get consistently right?
Kvyat: The start of the lap is always really tough and it’s very easy to get wrong. The lap starts with a big test but the big thing is to find a good rhythm through it. That’s the case everywhere there really. The long straight is good and the heavy braking zone at the end of that is interesting. It’s a pretty good circuit, wide open, you can really push hard all the way through. I had a good race there last year and managed to get a points finish, so I’m happy to go back.
Q2: What’s the most difficult thing about the race weekend off-track?
Kvyat: The paddock! It’s huge and really hard to find anything. It looks completely unreal. The best thing about it is that you can hide, walk around on your own in there and not be bothered by anyone.
Q3: What about away from the track completely: Did you have a look around Shanghai last year?
Kvyat: We stayed close to the track last year, so it’s not easy to get a good look around the center of Shanghai. But we did get a chance to do a bit of sightseeing last year. It’s an impressive city. It’s a really interesting place, but absolutely huge, you drive through all these towns on the way in to the center that are part of the city and they’re huge.
FEATURE: Daniel and Daniil gear up for the Chinese Grand Prix
Ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull racers, Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat have been busy sampling some local activities with our friends from Red Bull China.
On Wednesday, Daniel was at Guyi Gardens, in Nanxiang, where he completed a light martial arts workout with local expert, Mr. Yang. Dan went through various stretching exercises, followed by high kicks and flat palm exercises in front of a gathering crowd.
A fan of martial arts, Daniel commented: “I really enjoy martial arts from both the sporting perspective and also the movement of the body. It’s very cool to see the human body flow the way it does in these routines. I’ve got a lot of respect for the practitioners and enjoy watching what they do. It’s pretty far removed from what we do, as we’re strapped down in the car and don’t have much in the way of a range of movements, but a lot of the stuff we can learn from martial artists can be employed in our training.”
Meanwhile Dan’s teammate Daniil headed to Shanghai’s MTR Plaza to pit his virtual racing skills up against some top-class Chinese computer gamer champions.
Daniil took on female gaming champion Ma Xue on a custom-built track specially designed for the challenge, followed by the next challenger, Infi, with whom he completed a two-lap close-fought affair. The gaming arena at the MTR Plaza in Shanghai is set to stay in place for 10 weeks, during which time it will host a number of individual and team championship battles.
Daniil and Daniel are now looking ahead to this weekend’s race at the Shanghai International Circuit. “We’re definitely looking to make some progress,” said Daniil. “We want to start making big steps forward, and this race here in China is the one where I hope things start to get better for us.” Fresh from his exertions in the park, Daniel said: “I’m expecting a good weekend here in China. The first two racing weekends of the season have been a little bit tricky so we’re definitely coming here with higher hopes. Hopefully we can get a good race under our belts.”
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