Daniel Ricciardo's chances of serving a grid penalty later this season just got stronger with the replacement of the energy store unit on the Aussie's RB14.
The Red Bull driver suffered a total electronic failure in Bahrain last weekend which put him out of contention on the second lap of the race.
Subsequent analysis by Renault revealed a damaged energy store and the need for a replacement as well as new control electronics.
This season, drivers are allowed just two energy stores, with a third automatically triggering a 10-place grid penalty.
“We’ve got a second one, if we do it again then we’ve got a penalty,” commented RiccIrado.
“Two have to last the year and one, I believe, is in a bin in Bahrain. We survived with one for one race.
“It’s more likely than not we’ll have a penalty. Hopefully it’s happening later – I’m 90 per cent sure.”
The occurrence of the failure so early in the season was an understandable source of disappointment for the driver, who also suffered a similar issue in pre-season testing.
“I was more disappointed, it’s too early to be frustrated,” said Ricciardo.
“Just to start being frustrated and overdrive, I don’t think that’s the right mindset right now.
“I was disappointed with the result, I wanted to break something, but I’m not at the point where I’m frustrated.”
Ricciardo insists however that he has a good and fast race car on his hands, and one with which he can fight at the front.
“The car is performing well, we’re still trying to find more from it but the base of the car started off a lot better than last year aerodynamically,” Ricciardo told Motorsport.com.
“It’s just more sound, it feels like more of a race car and there’s a bit more confidence throwing the car around.
“I believe both races we had a podium car and we haven’t got there, so we need to start converting some of these results from what we believe we’ve got.
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