Ricciardo will benefit from a new chassis as of China
Racing Bulls is looking for solutions to help the Australian driver. To do this, Ricciardo will have a new chassis in China.

Since the beginning of the season, Daniel Ricciardo is struggling to keep up with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. During discussions with his team, he suggested that something might not be right with his package and that it was one of the reasons for his poor performance.
The race director Alan Permane emphasized that the new chassis was already under construction and was not built due to doubts about the current car of Daniel Ricciardo.
« For me, the chassis is a large piece of carbon to which we attach the suspension, to which we attach an engine and a gearbox. It is really very unlikely that there will be performance issues with the chassis », he said on Autosport’s microphone.
« However, we have a new one coming, it makes sense at all levels to give this to Daniel, especially since Yuki is super happy and super comfortable where he is. We have no preference for pilots. With Daniel, maybe it’s good for him to completely put that aside, that there are problems with the car. »
In the past, teams have sometimes found that drivers who suspected an issue with a chassis were right. For Permane, he thinks this will not be the case with Ricciardo’s VCARB 01. Sometimes you can measure things, you can put chassis on platforms and check rigidity and things like that. The reason I say it’s very unlikely is that it’s not really a performance differentiator, he explains.
Is the performance up to standard in Suzuka?
« A safety cell, as it is called in the regulations, is there to dismantle the front suspension, to dismantle the engine, and to ensure the driver’s safety. So, I don’t see this as a performance differentiator, and it’s certainly not something we want to have drivers coming in and out of. »
« It is a lucky coincidence that we have one, and it makes no sense to give it to Yuki. It is logical to give it to Daniel, but we are not bringing a new chassis because of his issues, to clarify that ». It refers to rumors that suggest that in order to counter the Australian’s problems, the team is trying to modify the car.
He nevertheless admits that the team will adopt a cautious approach when setting up the car according to Ricciardo’s personal preferences. “It’s not an easy task because you can solve this kind of thing with a setup,” he said. “But what you don’t want to do is make the car slower, and we have been very careful not to make it a more comfortable but slower car. In a perfect world, you handle it, you give him confidence, and then you slowly come back to get the maximum performance,” he explained to the English media.
For Suzuka, the team introduced a revised floor, which was used by Tsunoda during FP1, while third driver Ayuma Iwasa used the standard version. This car was then converted to the new floor for Ricciardo’s use in FP2.
Permane added that the update will bring more performance on sites where slow corners are dominant. It has fins at the front, a new wing on the side, and, in fact, a new small detail around the rear tire. This gives us a nice little downforce step.
We hesitate a little to say that it’s going to be fantastic here in Suzuka, it mainly focuses a bit on the lower speed, and here we have much faster content, so we are intrigued to see how it’s going to go here. We would like a bit more high-speed performance, that’s why I say we are a little hesitant here. We have improvements coming in the next races that will target this area.