Ricciardo expects grid penalty after Bahrain failure

The Red Bull driver retired on the second lap of the race when the car shut down without warning thanks to the failure, and the team has confirmed damage to the Renault energy store means it cannot be re-used.

The number of energy stores allowed per season season for each driver has been reduced to two this season, and once a third is introduced it will trigger a 10-place grid penalty.

Ricciardo has taken a new energy store and control electronics for this race.

“We’ve got a second one, if we do it again then we’ve got a penalty,” said Ricciardo of the energy store failure.

“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.”

Despite the failure, which he suffered while running fourth early in a race in which Red Bull hoped to have the pace to challenge for victory, Ricciardo is refusing to get frustrated with the problems.

It is the second time Red Bull has suffered an energy store problem of this nature in 2018, with the first occurring during 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.”

The 28-year-old is satisfied with the fact Red Bull has started 2018 in more competitive shape than it did last season.

But he is keen to start delivering the podium finishes the car is capable of, having taken the team’s best finish of the season so far with fourth in last month’s Australian Grand Prix.

“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,” said Ricciardo when asked by motorsport.com whether Red Bull had achieved its aims of starting the season in better shape performance-wise.

“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.

“It’s no good having maybe the fastest car if we’re not winning with it.

“Hopefully, [we can have] a smooth weekend and see what the potential is like because we assume we’ve got a really quick car, but we’ve got to do a whole race to see now.”

Additional reporting by Scott Mitchell