Daniel Ricciardo drives at the Red Bull Ring. Source: Getty Images

Ricciardo completed 116 laps during Wednesday’s final Formula 1 in-season test session for 2015 at the Red Bull Ring, setting the eighth-fastest time of the day.

The Red Bull team focused its energies primarily on the aerodynamic performance of the car, at one stage lapping with a large aero rake attached to the car that Ricciardo described as looking like “something out of ‘The Terminator’.”

Daniel Ricciardo driving at the Red Bull Ring. Source: Getty Images

While the long straights of the Austrian circuit didn’t play to Red Bull’s strengths, Ricciardo believes the Silverstone layout will allow Red Bull to challenge the Williams entries next weekend.

“Looking at the times isn’t really relevant for us; we weren’t pushing for qualifying runs, but looking at the work we did it was a good day,” Ricciardo told motorsport.com.

“We made some more extreme setup changes that we wouldn’t normally do in a race weekend, to explore the limits of the car and try to extract some more potential out of the car.

“We know our weaknesses here with the long straights, but there are a few more corners at Silverstone, which suits our car better, and we have some aerodynamic updates that will help us.

Daniel Ricciardo prepares for Formula 1 testing. Source: Getty Images

“I don’t think we’ll be able to fight with Mercedes or Ferrari yet but hopefully we can be close to Williams.”

Red Bull’s Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin echoed Ricciardo’s comments, stressing it was development, not raw lap times, that was the primary focus for the team during the two-day test session.

“It was a pretty successful test. Day one was obviously compromised a bit by the weather but once the conditions improved we put in 80 laps in a four-hour period with no dramas,” Rocquelin said.

“With Pierre Gasly in the car, day one was more data-driven, running a lot of background tests and the result was good.

“Pierre is excellent. His feedback is great, he is able slot in and do comparable lap times to the race drivers and he delivers exactly what you want.

Daniel Ricciardo appears relaxed despite Red Bull’s woes. Source: Getty Images

“Today, with Daniel, there was lot of aero research and development, so we were running a lot of arrays and again we gathered a lot of valuable information.

“Part of the aim today was to take what we had at the weekend, which was a pretty strong race for Daniel, and answer a couple of questions we had during the race.

“We were able to do that and we’ll go away from Austria satisfied that we’ve put in a couple of very productive days’ work.”

Things didn’t go smoothly for Ricciardo all day, with a small brake fire late in the day forcing the session to be temporarily red-flagged.

“We just had a small failure inside the car which made the brakes stick on, so we had a small fire with the brakes,” Ricciardo told motorsport.com.

Guillaume Rocquelin (left), Head of Race Engineering for Red Bull Racing and Simon Rennie (right), Race Engineer to Daniel Ricciardo talk during Formula 1 testing at the Red Bull Ring. Source: Getty Images

“But it wasn’t a big problem, the guys turned it around in about half an hour, and we got back out for the last run.”

Unsurprisingly, Nico Rosberg was by far the fastest driver during the session, with his best time of 1:09.113 seconds some eight tenths of a second better than the next fastest, Esteban Gutierrez of Ferrari.

The opening practice for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone will begin next Friday, 3 July from 7:00pm AEST.

Formula 1 Red Bull Ring Testing times

1. Nico Rosberg (GER/Mercedes) 1:09.113 (117 laps)

2. Esteban Gutiérrez (MEX/Ferrari) 1:09.931 (110)

3. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Williams) 1:10.029 (79)

4. Marco Wittmann (GER/Toro Rosso) 1:10.103 (158)

5. Pascal Wehrlein (GER/Force India) 1:10.253 (132)

6. Jolyon Palmer (GBR/Lotus) 1:10.373 (110)

7. Fernando Alonso (ESP/McLaren) 1:10.718 (104)

8. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull) 1:10.757 (116)

9. Felipe Nasr (BRA/Sauber) 1:10.922 (138)