Daniel Ricciardo has expressed his delight of out-performing his reigning world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel this season.
The Australian, who joined Red Bull this season from junior team Toro Rosso, has exceeded the expectations of many and has had the upper hand on Vettel in the first half of the season, currently 43 points ahead of the German in the championship and best of the rest behind the two Mercedes drivers in 3rd.
On top of that, Ricciardo is the only non-Mercedes driver to have taken race victories this year, taking opportunistic wins in Canada and in Hungary last time out. While four-time champion Vettel has only mustered two podium finishes in a season that has seen him struggle to get on top of the Red Bull.
The fact that Ricciardo has fast-become the leading Red Bull driver on sheer pace is something he can’t hold back on.
“Of course I won’t lie: it feels great,” admitted Ricciardo in an interview with CNN. “You know he is an awesome benchmark to sort of judge myself on. And, you know, not only the rest of the guys in the field but him especially.”
The 24-year-old is happy to have been able to demonstrate his strong pace both over a single-lap and over a race distance.
He added: “To have shown really good speed against him not only in qualifying but in races as well has been encouraging. So yeah I am enjoying it.”
