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Red Bull woes: Ricciardo tells the story

  • No  podium places all year
  • What else can happen?'
  • Champs now only fourth

SPIELBERG, Austria - Australian Daniel Ricciardo understands the frustration of his Red Bull Formula 1 team's billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz who has been leading a chorus of criticism about the state of the sport.

Renault-powered Red Bull won four consecutive Drivers' and Constructors' titles (2010-13) until the new ‘power units’ were introduced and engine supplier Renault struggled to find performance and reliability.

SPEED WEEK CHAT

Neither Ricciardo nor Russian mate Daniil Kvyat has been on the podium so far in 2015 and the team is fourth overall ahead of its home Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring here in Spielberg.

Mateschitz said of Renault in an interview with Speed Week magazine: “They take from us not only time and money but also the will and motivation. There is no driver and no chassis more able to compensate for the lack of horsepower.

“What else has to happen that we will lose our motivation completely?"

Ricciardo, 17th-fastest in Friday's free practice and facing a 10-place grid penalty at Sunday’s race start as punishment for an engine change, said Mateschitz's comments were born of simple frustration.

"We're now in the eighth race of the season so the frustration can start to build," he said. "We know we're still at a disadvantage. We were in 2014 but were optimistic that we'd close the gap a lot in 2015 but nearly halfway through the season we're more or less in the same position.

"I think this is where the comments and frustration came from."

'OVER-REGULATED, DULLED DOWN'

The wave of negativity from Red Bull, at a time when the sport is discussing changes from 2017, has taken on a more concerted look this week with criticism from several quarters within the company.

Red Bull's motorsport consultant Helmut Marko and former Red Bull driver Mark Webber, in an interview released by the energy drinks company, accused the sport of being over-regulated and dulled down.

On Friday the front page of a special edition of the Red Bulletin magazine that is printed at the circuit and handed out in the paddock carried the headline What's Wrong with Formula One?.

Inside, an article under the byline of triple F1 champion and Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, a friend and compatriot of Mateschitz, argued that the sport had "basically been regulated to death down the years".

"Everyone sticks their oar in," it added.

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