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Red Bull Crashes F1 Car during Film Day

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Red Bull RB14 Special Livery Rear

Yesterday, Red Bull Racing unveiled the RB14, its 2018 Formula One challenger, before putting Daniel Ricciardo in the car for a few shakedown and promotion laps around the wet Silverstone circuit.

The team was limited to 100 km of running, but before they could reach that limit, Ricciardo crashed into the barriers at low speed. Though he escaped unharmed, the car did not: the front wing, nose, floor, and suspension all received damage.

This raised some questions about Red Bull’s ability to be ready for the first pre-season test, upcoming in less than a week, as teams tend to be tight on spare parts at this time of the year.

A Red Bull spokesman, however, confirmed that everything would be fine in time for the first test at Barcelona. That should perhaps come as no surprise, as Red Bull is one of the top financed teams on the grid.

Despite the crash, Ricciardo felt upbeat about the initial performance of the car. “It’s hard to tell from a couple of laps but the initial feeling in the car is good,” he said. “I can already feel that the rear feels pretty settled, even in these poor conditions. Those are encouraging early signs.”

He also had some insightful comments to make about the unpopular new halo device, mandated by new regulations in 2018. “So far I can see fine with the halo,” he explained. “I’d only done a couple of installs with it before so it was pretty new today but I really didn’t notice it was there, which is pretty good. Honestly, unless there’s stuff above, I don’t see any issues at all on a flat track.”