Daniel Ricciardo: Not the way to mark the anniversary of his brilliant first F1 win.

A frustrated Daniel Ricciardo has described the Canadian GP as Red Bull’s worst weekend of the year so far as the former world champions’ form continues to nosedive.

While Ricciardo’s trademark smile remained in place – “it’s either this or cry” – the Australian’s frustration after a dismal race in Montreal was all too apparent. A year on from claiming his maiden F1 win in Canada, Ricciardo finished this Sunday’s race a distant 13th – behind team-mate Daniil Kvyat and a lap down on the victorious Lewis Hamilton.

"I thought the worst was past us but this weekend was by far our worst of the year,” a forlorn Ricciardo told Sky Sports F1. "I thought we had reached the lowest point but today was a new one."

Ricciardo complained of an unexplained problem on his RB11 throughout the race but Red Bull’s fundamental problem is an underpowered Renault engine that remains no match for the power units of either Ferrari or Mercedes.

After a brief lull in what was becoming an increasingly fractious relationship between team and supplier since the advent of F1’s new power-centric turbo era, Red Bull boss Christian Horner reportedly likened his outfit’s current predicament to "entering the Grand National with a Shetland pony" this weekend. Ricciardo himself, normally the embodiment of optimism, was quoted admitting: "I don't think we really know what we need right now or where to find it."

The Red Bull of Ricciardo was no match for the Mercedes-powered Williams along the Montreal straights

In contrast to Mercedes, who arrived in Montreal with new engines, and both Honda and Ferrari, who spent some of their remaining engine development tokens ahead of this weekend’s event, Renault have opted to delay making upgrades to their V6s until later in the year.

"A hard weekend for the team, as expected,” said Renault chief Thierry Salvi.

“We finished the weekend without any reliability issues, but the performance was not at the right level. We know the steps that need to be taken to come back to the front so it’s just a question of time now. Now the reliability issues are under control we can focus 100% on the performance. We hope to be able to run the up-to-date engine spec as soon as possible to take as much advantage as possible before the end of the year."