Daniel Ricciardo’s move from Red Bull ‘takes more time than you think’: Nico Hulkenberg

Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault teammate Nico Hulkenberg has revealed just why he can expect a tough ride with the Aussie on board.

The Renault cars are pushing to stay the best of the rest.

Australian F1 star Daniel Ricciardo’s first points in a Renault car in Shanghai on the weekend has signalled a change in the team.

The 29-year-old had two retirements to start his career in black and yellow in an inauspicious start.

But in Shanghai, a seventh placed finish gave Ricciardo his first points and first win over teammate Nico Hulkenberg — in qualifying or during a race — this season.

Ricciardo beat Hulkenberg by 0.004s to start from seventh on the grid, while the German retired early after another MGU-K problem finished his race on lap 16.

Looking at his teammate’s development in the new car, Hulkenberg said the result shows Ricciardo is getting more comfortable.

The Aussie has admitted it’s been tough to get out of habits he learned at Red Bull in the past but Hulkenberg said it’s all part of the learning curve of moving to a new team. And the German knows he’ll need to watch his back once Ricciardo finds his groove.

“Daniel still needs to get used to the car, to the team,” Hulkenberg told Sky Sports F1 in China.

“It always takes more time than you think, especially when you come from a better car to a slightly worse car because things are different. It’s a different kind of mindset and battle in the midfield than up the front.

“He’s still getting used to it, finding his feet but I have no doubt he’s going to give me some trouble very soon.”

Nico Hulkenberg senses a changing of the guard with Daniel Ricciardo.

Following a tough start to the year, Ricciardo expressed his relief at getting his first points of the season.

But with two retirements for the Aussie and two for Hulkenberg, Ricciardo said the team still need to find improvements to stay the best of the rest.

“It’s good obviously to get on board, and to finish the race — we were looking for that for the last couple,” Ricciardo said.

“Obviously we’ll take the positives from that and try and build on that. There’s obviously still a lot of work to do. We’ve still got work to do to get both cars home in the points.

“We’ll take positives but we’re trying to find a bit more every weekend. It’s a start this weekend.”

Despite the result, team boss Cyril Abiteboul said Ricciardo finishing a lap down was not a positive, calling his pace “miserable”.

“There’s nothing to be proud of, but just in terms of pace it was better than it looked, because we were so much into the tyre management,” he told Autosport.

“Even myself I didn’t want a one-stop because of that reason, because I knew that our pace would look miserable.

“But it was very clear from our strategists that a two-stop would not work for us, so we had to make the one-stop work, and it worked.”

The boss wasn’t happy with a “miserable” seventh.

Hulkenberg’s MGU-K motor generator unit dropped out in the sixteenth lap as he felt a loss of power.

While driving, he tried to reboot the unit but it was to no avail and the team retired the car.

“We’re looking into the issue,” said Hulkenberg after the race. “It’s clearly a very disappointing race for us today. It was a difficult start to the race, I lost a position and it was tough following cars ahead. We pitted and came out in some traffic, but then I felt a loss of power. We tried our best to fix it out there as it looked like a software issue, but it wasn’t possible and we had to park up.”

After the team suffered a double retirement in Bahrain, Abiteboul labelled Renault’s engine problems “increasingly frustrating and unacceptable”.

All the more frustrating for Hulkenberg is that he has finished in the top five in practice sessions in both Bahrain and China before suffering unreliability later in the weekend.

But after Hulkenberg surprised Ricciardo in testing and the opening rounds, it appears the tide is turning at Renault.

The pair are sitting tenth and eleventh respectively on six points with the team moving up to fourth, a long way behind the big three.

But with Ricciardo able to stay on the track, Sky Sports F1 expert Nico Rosberg said Ricciardo’s performance in China has sent a message to his teammate.

“It was an important weekend for Daniel,” the 2016 world champion said. “In the first two, Nico Hulkenberg was really dominating that team internal battle. Now he’s back, he’s put his mark and said ‘hey, I’m here and you watch out because I’m going to try and beat you over the season’. He’s looking good now.”

Hulkenberg will be hoping to avoid the retirement hat-trick.

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As for the team putting pressure on the big three of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, Hulkenberg said the signs are positive if the team can continue to improve.

“I’m in a good position with Renault and hopefully we can collectively improve this car and as a team really get to the front by next year or two years’ time,” Hulkenberg said.

“Certainly I’m having a good time. I’m enjoying myself and I’m in a good position. Of course I would love to battle for victories and be up the front but it’s always about where can you be, what are your alternatives.

“Just being out there racing and competing with the other guys, racing, it’s good fun and it’s very enjoyable at the moment.”

— with Sky Sports

Originally published as Daniel Ricciardo’s move from Red Bull ‘takes more time than you think’: Nico Hulkenberg