Red Bull suffer embarrassing mishap on Ricciardo replacement's first lap
Pierre Gasly, the man replacing Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull, has crashed during his very first lap in pre-season testing.
Gasly, making his debut at the wheel of Red Bull’s new Honda-powered RB15 after Max Verstappen drove it on day one of the test, crashed at the long Turn 12 right-hander with just over an hour of the afternoon session left.
The car snapped out of control as he went through the corner, and the Frenchman spun rear-end-first into the tyre wall.
Gasly admitted the crash was caused by driver error when asked to explain it.
“Basically, you are pushing the car to the limits and playing with the limits,” he said.
“I went on throttle and lost the rear, and basically that was it.
“It caught me a bit by surprise and [there’s] not much you can do once it is done. We have six more days of testing and a lot of stuff to test.”
Gasly insisted his first day in the Rb15 had been a “very positive” one despite the crash.
Gasly, who drove a Honda-engined Toro Rosso car last year, praised the reliability the Japanese manufacturer’s power units have shown over the first two days of the test.
“So far it has been really good,” he said.
“Also looking at Toro Rosso, they have managed to do a lot of laps [209 over two days] so we need to use all the feedback.
“But so far we are really happy with the job they [Honda] have done. [There are] still more tests to do over the next six days but really happy so far.”
Ricciardo confident despite slow start at Renault
Meanwhile, Ricciardo has taken heart from the performance of his Renault in testing, even if his time in the car was cut short by the rear wing flying off.
The former Red Bull driver, who moved to Renault at the end of last season, said he felt “quite encouraged” with the laps he did on Tuesday before the failure.
“The way the car used the tyres I thought was pretty encouraging. I didn’t feel like it fell off a cliff and we’re killing it,” the Australian said.
Asked how the rear wing had felt, he replied: “While it was on it was OK.”
Ricciardo said it was still far too early to say where Renault, fourth overall last year, stood from a competitive standpoint, but he said they were leaving no stone unturned.
“I feel there’s a lot of attention to detail and it’s promising from an ambitious point of view. I feel they are ticking all the boxes from an analysis and ‘trying to get better’ point of view,” he said.
Ricciardo, who until this season has spent his Formula One career backed by Red Bull, also managed to avoid the pitfall of stopping at the wrong garage.
“Today the Red Bull guys were waiting for (Pierre) Gasly when I was coming in the pits. They were all out there and I was like, ‘I’m not going to fall for it’. I actually waved as I drove past,” he laughed.
The Red Bull mechanics waved back, he added.
with agencies
