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Daniel Ricciardo says that despite the conditions seen in practice, the newly resurfaced Silverstone track does, in fact, offer a lot more grip.
The Australian spoke at the end of the opening day of the British Grand Prix weekend – a day that saw all 20 drivers struggle to keep control of their cars around the 5.891km circuit.
“The new surface is actually pretty good,” Ricciardo said. “It offers quite a bit of grip in some areas.
“Initially, in the morning, it was quite slick and oily, but then it rubbered in.
“Where it was windy it was worse, but if you came in to a nice headwind out of a corner, then you felt a lot of grip.”
The first practice session was awash with cars spinning and sliding off the track, thanks to the lack of immediate grip available.
Romain Grosjean crashed his car in the pit lane as a result and had to complete a lap with no front wing.
Coupled with the greasy track, Renault’s Ricciardo says that the many bumps around the circuit cause just as many problems, and that they may even be too harsh for the MotoGP. motorcycle championship to handle when the series visits next month.
“It is still really bumpy in some areas, though,” he explained. “I don’t think the MotoGP guys are going to like turn six; they’re going to kick up a fuss.”
Ricciardo may have avoided adding to the tally of slips and slides throughout the day, but reliability woes struck his car as he broke down with a blown engine.
Fortunately for the seven-time grand prix winner, the engine fitted at the time was not set up to be raced. He will, instead, move to an upgraded engine for the race itself.
“That was the original specification, so it was definitely just a practice engine. It would have been nice to get a few more Fridays out of it, though.”
