Barcelona Testing – Daniel Ricciardo believes that the ultrasoft tyre is not that much faster than the soft tyre after running both on the first day of the second test.
In a day which featured ‘performance runs’ for Red Bull Racing, Daniel Ricciardo finished the day in second place.
He predominantly utilised the soft tyre, but was sent out on the faster tyre compounds part-way through the day.
The time he set on the ultrasoft tyre (the fastest available compound) was a 1:19.900, but he was edged out by Felipe Massa’s Williams.
The Brazilian posted a time almost two tenths faster than Ricciardo whilst using the slightly harder supersoft tyre.
These times, coupled with evidence from ultrasoft tyre runs in the first test, suggest to Ricciardo that the performance difference between the softer compounds isn’t that big.
“I felt we performed well on the softs this morning and we did quite a few good runs on that. We were also able to start doing some performance runs today,” said Ricciardo.
“We tried the softer compounds and while my best time was on the ultrasoft it was actually not much quicker than the soft. I think we learned something from that.”
The Australian added, however, that he felt more pace was to be unlocked from the RB13.
“Generally I’m happy with what we got out of this morning and in terms of where we were last week I feel like the car is starting to come alive more. This afternoon we focused more on longer runs.
“We only got a few in, but it was enough to know how the tyres work after a few laps.
“We definitely feel we can still get more out of the car – I think everyone can – but it’s looking alright. It’s now my third day in the car and from day one to day two and now day three, I’m more and more happy with it.”