It was the first major crash of the 2020 season. Daniel Ricciardo who lost control of his car and ended up hard in the wall of turn nine. He came out of it unscathed, but team boss Cyril Abiteboul has now announced that the car itself has remained reasonably intact.
"After a thorough inspection of the engine everything seems to be in order", Abiteboul informs Motorsport-Total.com. Only the gearbox of the Renault needs to be replaced, but due to Ricciardo's breakdown in the first Grand Prix, it was already the plan to replace the gearbox.
Balance was focused on oversteer
"We wanted to switch to a new gearbox anyway, don't worry", Abiteboul said. The car was more focused on the fast qualifying lap at the time of the accident. "Our balance went oversteer. That happened, and there was also a bit of wind that didn't help in turn nine."
The failure of Ricciardo in the first Grand Prix has also become clear. "It was something very strange that hadn't happened before. There was a small crack in one of the radiators, so we lost some pressure. To save the engine, we let Daniel go into the pits". The problem was immediately investigated and the problem was soon solved. "We won't have any more problems with that now," Abiteboul concluded.