Ricciardo hits barriers on Red Bull RB14 shakedown
As if it was to test the strength of some components, Daniel Ricciardo ended up in the barriers yesterday while completing the first laps with the RB14 at Silverstone. The team has confirmed the incident occurred at lost speed, and should cause no problems for the start of testing next Monday.
A team spokesperson confirmed "it will be no problem for testing next week in Barcelona", even though it is known that at this time of the year, teams are still feverishly producing parts and don't have a heap of spares in the garages yet.
The new car incurred damage to the nose, front wing, floor and suspension.
The RB14 made its on-track debut at the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing filming day at Silverstone yesterday. Daniel Ricciardo took the honours behind the wheel, completing a number of laps in damp conditions.
Following his day in the RB14 Daniel commented “It’s always exciting to drive the car for the first time. It sounds a bit different, obviously looks a bit different – actually it looks cool. It’s cold, it’s pretty miserable today at Silverstone but it’s nice to be out there. First cobwebs shaken out and I’m ready to go to Melbourne.
“It’s hard to tell from a couple of laps but the initial feeling in the car is good. I can already feel that the rear feels pretty settled, even in these poor conditions. Those are encouraging early signs. So far I can see fine with the halo. I’d only done a couple of installs with it before so it was pretty new today but I really didn’t notice it was there, which is pretty good. Honestly, unless there’s stuff above, I don’t see any issues at all on a flat track.
“It’s been a long day, trying to get everything going and complete the filming – but a lot better to have that here than in Barcelona.”
Team principal Christian Horner underlined the special livery on the RB14, undelining the fact that the team departed from its usual launch-as-late-as-possible phylosophy.
“The special edition livery has made its mark on the 2018 season. Knowing we were running all of our development and processes earlier to meet this early launch, we felt that ‘shift’ had to be reflected in the livery, hence the ‘digital disruption’ you saw on the RB14 at Silverstone. It was good to have got the first few laps of 2018 under our belts and now we look forward to the first test in Barcelona next week.”
