Ricciardo says ‘Pony’ Renault engine “had to be put down”

Ricciardo also divulged that the engine was nicknamed ‘Pony’ in the Renault camp, and confirmed that the well-used unit won’t be seen again.

“I think it’s RIP to that engine.” he said, while crossing himself. “So we're going to have a little service tonight for it. It was called Pony as well, so we had to put Pony down I think.

“That was the original spec, so it was definitely just a practice engine. It would have been nice to get that to do a few more Fridays. But the word for now is that we're gonna say ‘adios’ and put Pony down.”

Asked by Motorsport.com if he would miss Pony, he replied: “Yeah, we'll do a little service for Pony tonight. It was an A-spec, so it wasn't my most loved one anyway.

“I got first points with Pony in Shanghai, I think it was. So she enjoyed China, loved a bit of Chinese food, strong guts, but other than that I think we’ll forget about Pony tomorrow once we spread the ashes tonight.”

Ricciardo and team mate Nico Hulkenberg finished FP2 in 14^th and 15^th positions, but the Australian expects to see an improved performance tomorrow.

“I think the time sheets don't show too much optimism, but I think we are better than that,” he added. “For sure we've still got some work to do, but I think there's some lap time on the table which we can get quite quickly. But to put us there into that P7, P8 area we do need to find a little bit more.

“So I think we're currently good enough to probably get inside the top 10, but just. I think we obviously want to get a bit deeper in there. So still a few things to discover on the car.”

Ricciardo confirmed that the set-ups of the two cars have converged: “This morning Nico and myself split set-ups. This afternoon we got them closer, but we’re still a bit different in some areas. So trying to understand what's the best direction to go now. I think we'll find it. We’re kind of there or thereabouts.

“There's a few other things that we did on the sim which we might give a go tomorrow, but I don't know. I don't want to change too much, but I know we need to change a little bit to get to where we want to be.”