Red Bull fell short of Ferrari and Mercedes at Albert Park
Thursday 30 March 2017 11:23, UK
Red Bull pair Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have admitted there's plenty of work to do after a mixed opening weekend in Australia.
Home favourite Ricciardo had a few days to forget in Melbourne. After crashing in qualifying he was handed a five-place grid penalty for the race after changing a gearbox, before being forced to retire less than halfway through the grand prix at Albert Park.
"It's been a long week," he told Sky Sports F1. "Don't get me wrong it's been fun but I feel bad for the fans. I believe there were more people here supporting me than the others and I'm sure they would have loved to see me get out there and race.
"The five-place grid penalty sounded bad enough and then there were other issues. Obviously I'm disappointed but I'll wake up tomorrow (on Monday) and be fine and ready to go for China.
"If I'm going to look on the bright side I think the positive thing is Max seems to be going at a relatively good pace, so maybe we can learn something from his race today and move forward as a team."
Verstappen, meanwhile, had a slightly better weekend as he finished fifth behind the Mercedes and Ferrari pairs, but admitted he was even shocked to be so near to Kimi Raikkonen in fourth.
"I was a bit surprised we were that close to Kimi," he said. "Our pace was quite good compared to him and we were quite close to each other for the whole race.
"There wasn't much pressure from behind either, which was very nice, and I think the car behaved quite a bit better in the race than in qualifying.
"We still need to improve and we'll work hard to do that in the next few races."
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