Daniel Ricciardo admits Renault has failed to find improvements in its 2019 chassis

Daniel Ricciardo has pinpointed his team’s biggest failure in 2019, while pouring fuel on the big rumour surrounding Renault’s recent upgrade.

Daniel Ricciardo has admitted his team has dropped the ball on its chassis package upgrades this year which have failed to push the team to the front of the chasing pack.

The Aussie star says the team has been left with a feeling of “underachievement” after recent chassis and power unit upgrades failed to produce any significant performance boosts, leaving the team sixth in the championship standings.

Ricciardo singled out the team’s chassis for why Renault has been unable to compete with Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull again.

“It is funny because in my years at Red Bull it was probably the opposite,” he said, according to autosport.com.

“The chassis would develop fairly quickly, but then the power unit was behind. This year [with] the Renault, from the power unit side, I’ve been really happy with the updates and the progress.

“[With] the chassis, we’ve found a few things since the start of the season but nothing big. For sure, as a driver, you always want more and until you see yourself at the top of the timesheets you are always going to want more.

Daniel Ricciardo just wants more.

“The French [Grand Prix] upgrade we were definitely expecting more and didn’t get as much, so there was a little bit of [an] underachievement feeling through the team.

“I don’t want to sound too nice, but because I personally can’t create a front wing myself or anything, I don’t want to be like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’

“But hopefully, the next batch of updates we get is a bit more significant.”

Ricciardo’s glowing assessment of the team’s power unit — if you ignore the string of reliability issues — touched on a swirling rumour that the French team has recently pushed through the famous 1000 horsepower mark with its 2019 engine package.

World Champions Mercedes have consistently denied ever achieving the 1000 horsepower output with its engines, while Ferrari refused to confirm reports at the start of the 2019 season that it had also pushed through the four-figure threshold.

A report from Auto Motor Und Sport claimed Renault are the first to claim to have hit the 1000 horsepower figure.

Renault’s engine boss Remi Taffin said there have been times this year where the engine has recorded 1000 horsepower output.

“There are only certain performance peaks in qualifying,” he said.

Standard.

“We cannot always get that performance.

“In the race, we have over 950hp, and at times 960 or 970. It depends on many factors, including the circuit and the temperatures.”

Renault may have hit the historic mark, but they can’t necessarily drive a truck.

On its way to this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, one of Renault’s trucks was involved in an incident which led it to be driven off the road.

Images have been circulating of the crash with the trailer teetering on the side of the M1 motorway near Gyor.

The barrier along the road had also been flattened where the trailer left the road.

There were reports of firefighters and a rescue helicopter called to the scene with the driver initially trapped in the cabin.

Renault released a statement on social media reporting the driver was “conscious and has not suffered serious injury”.

We confirm that a Team truck was in an accident on the M1 in Hungary, near Gyor. The driver, who was driving within the respected regulations, is conscious and has not suffered serious injury. He’s been transported to hospital for further checks. No other vehicles were involved.

— Renault F1 Team (@RenaultF1Team) July 29, 2019