Mekies: There’s no point in denying that it was a bad weekend

Visa RB prepared a slew of new products for the Spanish leg of the season, but they didn’t work. Commenting on the weekend’s results, the riders and team manager admit that they do not yet know the reasons for the race. speed deficit.

Daniel Ricciardo (15th): “It was a strange weekend, because the 15th result doesn’t make me happy at all. But am I happy with how I performed the race and how we acted together as a team? Yes I am happy. I really think we had a good race.

I think we were a little short of pace in yesterday’s qualifying, but to be honest we left the impression today that we did everything we could. We controlled tire wear and attacked when necessary. Unfortunately, we are simply not capable of a higher result this weekend.

But weekends like this teach you a lot, and while there are some positives, there are many more issues to deal with as the car in its new, upgraded version seems to lack efficiency.

There is very little time until the next stage, so tonight we will get to work and try to understand everything more deeply in the preparation process for the Austrian Grand Prix.”

Yuki Tsunoda (19th): “The race was tough, I had problems. There were definitely serious problems with the car’s handling and driving it was not easy. Usually I feel comfortable while driving, but now I didn’t feel that way anymore.

There is clearly something wrong with the car and we need to analyze everything that happened to understand what exactly didn’t work so that we can perform with more confidence in Austria.”

Laurent Mekies, team leader: “We went to Barcelona with high hopes that the new products would work. Unfortunately, from the very beginning of training, we lacked pace in literally every session. There’s no point in denying that it was a bad weekend, and although we didn’t lose that much, we’re not going to make excuses.

We just weren’t competitive, that’s a fact. Given the positions we started from, the situation could only be improved under some unusual circumstances, for example if it was raining or if the safety car came out. However, the race was quite linear and although both riders did their best, we left Spain without achieving results that reflected the team’s efforts.

If we look for positive aspects, we have been able to check both cars extensively and collect as much information as possible. Now the team will have to try to make at least some improvements in the few days remaining before the start of training at the Red Bull Ring.

The season is very long and there will inevitably be some difficult weekends. We must put the problems of the past behind us, not despair, but on the contrary only look ahead and try to win back in Austria in a few days.”