After finishing second to the all-conquering Mercedes in 2014, Red Bull had a lot of expectation to take on the Silver Arrows this year. After a relatively uninspiring winter, the Milton Keynes outfit arrived in Melbourne, optimistic that they could take the fight to the reigning champions.
2015 Australian Grand Prix Red Bull Review
Minimal running in the practice sessions meant that there was very little useful data for the team to use; this meant the Bulls were seriously underprepared for both qualifying and the race. Despite the lack of information, Daniel Ricciardo dragged his RB11 to seventh on the grid, albeit 2 seconds shy of Lewis Hamilton’s pole lap. Meanwhile his teammate – Daniil Kvyat – was 13th with a lap that was nearly 3 seconds off the pace.
Disaster struck for Kvyat on the way to the grid, a suspected gearbox issue put paid to the Russian’s race before it had even started.
An injured Valtteri Bottas meant that the home favourite moved up to sixth on the grid alongside another Finnish driver – Kimi Raikkonen. This also meant he was directly behind his former teammate in the form of Sebastian Vettel.
Ricciardo stayed out of trouble into turn one, but this meant Felipe Nasr and Carlos Sainz in the sister Toro Rosso car crept past round the outside of the first corner. However, Raikkonen falling back through the pack meant that the Aussie only lost one place at the start of the race.
Ricciardo made his way past Sainz and into sixth place on the restart into turn three. The Red Bull driver was unable to get past the Sauber of Nasr (due to a lack of straight line speed) for the remainder of the race meaning as the chequered flag fell, Ricciardo finished in the same position he left the grid – sixth place.
Melbourne was a somewhat disappointing way to start the season for the home favourite – Daniel Ricciardo, the new boy – Daniil Kvyat, and the whole of Red Bull. Could there be more to come from the team or will this become the norm for the Bull’s 2015 campaign?
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