F1 2016 preview: Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull in for frustrating season as Melbourne Grand Prix nears

Updated

Two years ago, he promised so much: the smiling Australian bolter Daniel Ricciardo took the racing world by surprise, supplanting superstar Sebastian Vettel and making a splash in his debut for Red Bull.

But now the Formula One landscape is much changed, and the once mighty Austrian team is mired in in-fighting, engine troubles and the reality it is losing the sport's technology race.

The F1 2016 season will begin at Melbourne's Albert Park, with the opening race weekend starting March 18.

But while Mercedes remains clear favourite for the season with Ferrari steadily gaining on them, it could prove to be another season of frustration and ire for Ricciardo's Red Bull.

Ricciardo battling the trends as competitors improve

Ricciardo comes in to the 2016 season needing to reverse a sobering trend that looks set to continue with his team's mechanical worries, while their competitors continue to make serious ground.

In his 2014 debut season for Red Bull following promotion from Toro Rosso, Ricciardo stunned F1 pundits by seizing three wins and eight podium finishes to claim third place in the drivers' championship.

Vettel's departure saw the Australian take the number one driver's slot at Red Bull, but 2015 proved a far less lucrative year, with only two podiums for Ricciardo in an eighth-placed finish overall.

"It's testing - I felt I dealt with it a lot better in the second half of the year," Ricciardo told Associated Press.

"If you get frustrated, not only can it hinder you as a driver ... but it can have a negative effect on people around the team. It's managing so many things, that's part of the sport."

Daniel Ricciardo's F1 career summary 2011: HRT - 11 races, 0 wins, 0 podiums. Finished 27th overall

- 11 races, 0 wins, 0 podiums. Finished 27th overall 2012: Toro Rosso - 20 races, 0 wins, 0 podiums. Finished 18th overall

- 20 races, 0 wins, 0 podiums. Finished 18th overall 2013: Toro Rosso - 19 races, 0 wins, 0 podiums. Finished 14th overall

- 19 races, 0 wins, 0 podiums. Finished 14th overall 2014: Red Bull - 19 races, 3 wins, 8 podiums. Finished 3rd overall

- 19 races, 3 wins, 8 podiums. Finished 3rd overall 2015: Red Bull - 19 races, 0 wins, 2 podiums. Finished 8th overall

While Ricciardo's smile remains as broad as ever, the prospects for Red Bull are dimmer, with the Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg-driven Mercedes streaking well clear of the chasing pack.

Only Ferrari - with Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in tow - look to be anywhere near Mercedes' level on both a driver and technology level. All the Prancing Horse needs now is to improve its qualifying record, and it will be right up there with the defending champions.

The nearest team to Red Bull in the current F1 heirarchy, Williams, also looks set to build on its 2015 triumph (third place last season on that team's budget was practically Herculean), with a big boost to the car's innards in the shape of a Mercedes engine.

Red Bull's engine re-badge just papering over the cracks

Red Bull's problems with its Renault engine last season were well documented, with mechanical gremlins dogging the team from preseason all the way through to year's end.

This year, it's all about the new TAG-Heuer partnership - but beneath the new gloss of paint, we're still talking about the same engine manufacturer in Renault, and all the quibbles that entails.

Thankfully for Red Bull, Renault's engine has improved, and should have ironed out its reliability issues for the season ahead. But it's far from the quantum leap that was required to break the Mercedes-Ferrari oligarchy.

At its worst, the TAG-Heuer rebranding - make no mistake, it is more an exercise in advertising than a slick Swiss-watch redesign of the engine - is little more than lipstick on a pig.

Even Red Bull's sister team Toro Rosso ditched the Renault engine entirely, opting instead for a Ferrari as it looks to climb the constructors' ladder.

Furthermore, any development priorities from Renaut's camp will be directed to its own works team, with Danish whiz kid Kevin Magnussen leading their charge alongside British driver Jolyon Palmer, in a transitional campaign sure to require the manufacturer's full attention.

Red Bull still has an amazing chassis design and its team dynamic under principal Christian Horner is one of the best in the business. But is that enough to overcome its engine complaints?

Teams to cannibalise each other in 'best of the rest' race

Williams is the first hurdle on the championship standings that Red Bull will need to overcome this year before even thinking about Ferrari and Mercedes.

But the 'best of the rest' battle will see several teams sucked into a mini-league of their own, which will likely see a gap develop between them and the leading pair.

Red Bull and Williams are likely to be joined by Toro Rosso and Force India in the bracket below first and second place.

Force India had a wobbly start to 2015 but levelled out to podium challengers as the season wore on, and powered by a Mercedes engine, it will come down to the skill of drivers Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg to make gains on Red Bull.

Similarly, Toro Rosso with a Ferrari engine could see the sister team surpass Red Bull in the early stages of the season, coupled with an excellent chassis and hot shot driver Max Verstappen.

Red Bull's immediate competitors Team 2015 position 2016 engine Drivers Williams 3rd Mercedes Felipe Massa, Valtteri Bottas Red Bull 4th TAG Heuer Daniel Ricciardo, Daniel Kvyat Force India 5th Mercedes Sergio Perez, Niko Hulkenberg Toro Rosso 7th Ferrari Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jr



Playing politics: Red Bull's quibbles over quitting F1

Ultimately, Ricciardo finds himself driving for a team that has its head in the wrong place and suffering an identity crisis.

Team owner Dietrich Mateschitz has complained on numerous occasions about the engine situation at Red Bull, failing to do engine deals with Mercedes or Ferrari who will continue to focus on their own works teams.

"The tail is wagging the dog and Bernie [Ecclestone] is right," Mateschitz told Speedweek. "It wasn't him who put F1 into the gravel trap. It was the manufacturers who dictate what's going on."

Having been turned down by their competitors for same-spec engines while Renault sports its own works team, Mateschitz has compared Red Bull to cycling's domestiques - racers working in support of the leader, rather than going for the podiums themselves.

"If we are not competitive from an engine point of view, we will leave," Mateschitz said.

"For sure we don't want to spend the next five years fighting for P5. We want to be P3 behind the manufacturers' teams. We should win the fight against the customer teams of Mercedes and Ferrari."

It leaves Ricciardo and team-mate Daniel Kvyat in a battle to keep their team relevant, all under the spectre of sister team Toro Rosso possibly surpassing them.

F1 2016 season schedule March 20: Australia (Melbourne)

April 3: Bahrain (Sakhir)

April 17: China (Shanghai)

May 1: Russia (Sochi)

May 15: Spain (Barcelona)

May 29: Monaco (Monte Carlo)

June 12: Canada (Montreal)

June 19: Europe (Baku, Azerbaijan)

July 3: Austria (Spielberg)

July 10: Britain (Silverstone)

July 24: Hungary (Hungaroring)

July 31: Germany (Hockenheim)

Aug 28: Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)

Sept 4: Italy (Monza)

Sept 18: Singapore (Singapore)

Oct 2: Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)

Oct 9: Japan (Suzuka)

Oct 23: United States (Austin)

Oct 30: Mexico (Mexico City)

Nov 13: Brazil (Sao Paulo)

Nov 27: Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)









Topics: formula-1, motor-sports, sport, melbourne-3000, vic, australia

First posted