In an interview with crash.net today, Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo has stated that it is important for Red Bull to get in to position to take advantage of potential problems for Mercedes in the Hungarian Grand Prix tomorrow.
Sebastian Vettel will start from second place behind Nico Rosberg and Ricciardo from fourth as Lewis Hamilton failed to set a time due to a fuel leak. With Mercedes having had reliability concerns in each of the last four races, Ricciardo in his interview with crash.net today has said Red Bull is well placed to capitalise if Rosberg hits trouble on Sunday. Ricciardo stated the following:-
‘In terms of forcing them in to problems I think that’s just going to happen. If it happens naturally it will. But it’s important for us to be there as we were in Canada and as Seb is today; second and he’s right there if something happens.
‘So it’s important for us to capitalise if we can. It was pretty surprising what happened with Lewis. I think it was on his out lap so very early in the session, whether that’s a concern for Nico tomorrow I’m not sure. Obviously you always want to be as far up as you can and if something happens it happens.’
Ricciardo is correct in what he has stated in his interview. If Mercedes are experiencing problems with their reliability, then it will happen naturally. But as Ricciardo points out, himself and the Red Bull team need to be just like they was in Canada still fighting the Mercedes and if the opportunity comes up to take advantage and beat the Mercedes’ drivers, then they must take it. And if anyone can do that, the best man currently to do is Ricciardo who has impressed everyone so far with his performances this season.
Further on in his interview, Ricciardo himself has stated that he will need to jump Valtteri Bottas’ Williams and says the start of the race will be crucial in trying to do so. Ricciardo added the following:-
‘We should be better off [than Williams] round here. I believe we’ve got more downforce so it should be a bit easier to handle the tyres. Unfortunately one of them is just in front of me on the grid so it’s really going to be crucial I think to get him off the start. Unfortunately their starts are pretty rapid and ours are generally not as good but I’ll go in to tomorrow confident that we can jump him and I think from then on we should have a good race.’
Even though as his team-mate Sebastian Vettel stated yesterday, you cannot discount Williams just yet and they could surprise once again in the race tomorrow. If anyone is quick off the start line, it is either Bottas or Massa. As for Ricciardo and the Red Bull team, it would appear that Hungary is playing to their strengths at the moment with their car and they able to extract pace and performance from it. But Ricciardo should feel happy with what he has achieved so far this weekend and hope to make the best of it in the race tomorrow.
In the latter stages of his interview, Ricciardo revealed that his own session was slightly hampered by a rear wing issue. Ricciardo said the following:-
‘I think we definitely made a big improvement compared to yesterday. Got out there in P3 and we actually went to the top of the timesheets for a little while which was pleasant to see. We definitely solved the issues that we had yesterday and I think we were back to a competitive pace; Seb was nearly a second quicker than me yesterday and we got back on pace with him.
Q1 and Q2 was looking alright – I think we were pretty much matching each other – and then Q3 was tricky.
‘Once the rain came down I just struggled a little bit to get the tyres back in to a good working range for that one timed lap. We lost a little bit of the rear wing as well, the boys just showed me a piece that fell off during Q3 as well which didn’t help our efforts. But anyway, that was pretty much the story today. Better than yesterday but obviously was hoping for a front row after we saw Lewis make an early exit.’
It would appear that Ricciardo is happy with the improvements in performance from yesterday. He appears fairly confident that all the issues they had yesterday have been ironed out and they are a car that is competitive for them to push out on the circuit. It would seem that Ricciardo and Vettel are pushing each other as you would expect them but the battle appears to be much closer than in previous races so far this season.
In terms of Qualifying today, Ricciardo has stated himself that he struggled to get the tyres to work in the operating window, especially when conditions changed going into Q3. Also losing a piece of his rear wing certainly wouldn’t have helped Ricciardo and lost him some performance but he managed to achieve a good result today despite this.
But all Ricciardo can do is ensure that they have the best race possible tomorrow and see what they can deliver on the track. I would have to agree with Ricciardo, if the Mercedes team runs into trouble, Red Bull and Ricciardo have put themselves in the best possible position to take advantage of the situation if it occurs. And for me, Ricciardo is one of the few drivers on the grid who will do just that and show once again just talented he really is as a racing driver.
