Ricciardo: Red Bull can fight Mercedes on slower tracks

Q&A with Ricciardo after the Malaysian Grand Prix.

By Franck Drui

1 April 2014 - 18:34
Ricciardo: Red Bull can fight Mercedes

Daniel, quite a lot of bad luck today – have you walked under any ladders lately?

Ha! Nah, I’m not superstitious. You know what? Before Bahrain, on the grid I’ll walk under a ladder, how’s that! As I’ve said before, I’d rather race at the front and have bad luck than run around in 10th and not be showing the team that I was what they thought I was. There’s a lot of positives from the race.

Has the car taken a step forward since Australia?

We seemed a bit closer, didn’t we? I think the car itself, aerodynamically and mechanically, is competitive. We know we’re a little bit down on straightline speed and that really hurts somewhere like Sepang. Though through sector two [the twisty section] we were strong all weekend and on the pace of the Mercs. We’ll see how Bahrain treats us but once we get to China and – even better – Barcelona, I think we can really take the fight to them.

You strongly questioned a suggestion over team radio that you should back off to save tyres. What was the reasoning?

Simon Rennie, my engineer, was keen for me to look after the tyres. At that time it wasn’t completely decided if we were two or three-stopping so the idea had merit. But I didn’t think I was killing the tyres and I was happy with my pace. I didn’t want to break my rhythm as that can cause problems of its own. I could also see the Merc ahead wasn’t escaping and it looked like Seb was catching Nico Rosberg. I didn’t want to miss an opportunity if they got into a battle.

What happened at the pitstop?

I got the green light and went. I’ve watched the video and it’s clear that as soon as I started to move, the guys knew the wheel wasn’t on. The Team have the best pitstops in the paddock so it’s pretty rare for something like that to happen but it does and it’s just one of those things.

You’re going to Bahrain with zero points and a grid penalty. Does that put you into a more aggressive mindset?

In terms of aggression... well it’s not going to be any less! I’m going to Bahrain thinking that I have to be starting 11th, and need an aggressive start to get me back into contention. I need to get some points on the board and that’s not going to happen if I’m cruising around in the middle of the pack. That said, I don’t think I need to change anything much. I think I’m driving with good intensity, so I don’t need to do anything dramatically different.

Search

Formula 1 news

Pics

Videos