Ricciardo aims to be in title hunt at final round

2014 F1 season

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Daniel Ricciardo is aiming to go into the final race of the season still with a chance of winning the drivers’ championship.

But even with up to 50 points available in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix than at any other round, Ricciardo still needs to reduce his 72-points deficit to championship leader Nico Rosberg.

“Ideally if we could come in to Abu Dhabi within say 50 points and mathematically have a chance then I think that will be a huge achievement no matter what happens [with] the outcome,” he told the Sport und Talk programme on Red Bull’s Servus TV.

“To even just get to the last race and still be in with a shot would be awesome. That’s the aim but it’s still the approach of race-by-race.”

Ricciardo believes the final races on medium-to-high downforce tracks should suit his car better.

“I’m aware that [the title] is distant, definitely,” he said. “But we’ve got some tracks now that suit us and I’ve won some races this year so I know if I get in that position I’ve got a good chance of doing it again. So we’ll see.”

“All it takes is a couple of wins and a couple of bad races for the championship leader and all of a sudden everything’s possible again so let’s see what happens.”

“I really like this tail end of the season,” he added. “Singapore is the most challenging race of the year. It’s normally the longest, we pretty much get to two hours – the race limit – there, and it’s the hottest. And it’s got the most corners so it’s the most physical which is a really good challenge for all of us.”

“Suzuka is an amazing circuit, and an amazing place. Austin I love. That’s at least three that I’m very excited about.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “Ricciardo aims to be in title hunt at final round”

  1. I think that the hunting season is over.

  2. Honestly, its not out of the realms of possibility that Danny boy could do it, Singapore is a Red Bull track if ever there was one, engine power is less of a concern there. So provided a few other results, namely DNF’s for the Mercedes boys it is highly possibly that Riccarido could win the championship this year.

    1. @jarred-walmsley It’s also a track both HAM & ROS have historically gone very well at…

  3. Its unlikely but I would like to see him win as Hamilton and Rosberg have started to annoy me with there constant arguing about each other, Ricciardo seems like a happy down to earth person who sees that he is living the dream

    1. @lab140 It’s easy for Dan to be happy at the moment. But remember Suzuka last year?…

      Ricciardo: “Before I go off and kill somebody was [the penalty] for the move in turn 15?”

      Danny’s a top guy but he has drive and fight like the rest of them. Wait till he has a few close races with Vettel, if Seb pulls a strong move or two, uses a banned engine mode or flat out cheats him. Twice. Threatens to take the wdc off him by cheating. You’ll think Lewis and Nico have been pretty calm!

      1. don’t try to create a monster from nothing – that is called paranoia. show some positivity and enjoy this humble yound mans success – he is the driver of the year so far, 3 wins and beating a 4 times world champ. please don’t be a hater for that – he wont win the championship this year, but he is showing great commitment to his work, saying he will give it his all with the slightest of hope of winning – unlike jerks like Hamilton who want to park it after a puncture.

    2. I like Ricciardo, I think he is a future world champion, but in reality he will only win the WDC if the Mercs have more reliability issues or they take each other out. Red Bull should be stronger in Singapore, however I’m not so sure it will be the massive improvement some people are saying. We have been to track the were perfect for an Adrian Newey car, yet the mercs were still miles ahead. Also Apart from that and a couple of tough races at the start of the season it has been quite an easy season for Ric, he has picked up wins when others hit problems and hasn’t actually beat the Mercs on pure merit up until this point. He has driven great don’t get me wrong but only when the main competition is no longer there. But when/if Ricciardo does win the championship I want it to be in close wheel to wheel action all season, and where he has to fight hard for it, to see what he is really made of when the pressure is on. He is showing what a talent he is for the future though that’s for certain.

      In regards to Lewis & Nico arguing about each other, I would say it’s been pretty calm to be honest, Media makes it sounds a whole lot more loud but when fighting for the championship and especially the bad luck Lewis has had compared to Nico I think Lewis has been very calm in the circumstances, he is a lot more mature and level headed now. And as much of a nice guy Ricciardo is, I don’t think he would have acted any differently if he was in the same situation.

  4. He has a massive chance of being within 50 points of the leaders going into Abu Dhabi. I doubt he would win it but he has a chance to be in the hunt till the end.

    1. Just imagine that! In a classic Senna vs Prost fashion, as Hamilton and the media want this rivalry to become, they crash into each other into Abu Dabhi, seemingly handing the championship to the current leader! And BAM! Ricciardo wins the race, the 50 points and steal the title from them!

      1. Also a reminder of the 2007 showdown with Raikkonnen taking it by 1 point over the McLaren duo ;)

  5. I’m massively conflicted.

    I want Ricciardo to win the title, but I don’t want him to win it with the stupid double points rule.

    1. How terrible would it be for Mercedes to think that they the championship wrapped only to be undone by Bernies Double-points-spectacular. I hope it doesn’t come down to this gimmick

      1. They will hardly be caught in the constructors. That’s pretty much a certainty at this stage, but the double points gimmick could throw a spanner in the works for them in the driver’s championship. If any driver wins the title with double points, when they wouldn’t have had the points been the same for every race, I think the championship will be somewhat tainted.

        I just hope the leading driver, after the penultimate race, leads the championship by 51 points.

  6. Daniel will lose the title hunt before the Austin GP probably.
    He will be more than 100 points behind Rosberg or Hamilton ;) by that stage

  7. I predict 1-2 for RedBull in Singapure. Merc is likely to self-destruct themselves there.

  8. Formula Indonesia (@)
    11th September 2014, 11:41

    Overconfidence make you careless….. Dan have a phenomenal season I say, but Red Bull definetly slower than Mercedes and Hamilton-Rosberg likely will not clash again. Red Bull will not match Mercedes in Sochi, Interlagos , and Austin. They can compete well in Singapore and Japan but Seb is really quick in these track, which means Dan unlikely will be within 49 points range to the leader

  9. This rather depends on Red Bull’s competitiveness when F1 piles on the wing angle once more in Singapore and beyond. On paper this favours Red Bull, but Mercedes have still looked to have had as big a gap as ever at the higher downforce tracks visited so far: Barcelona, Monaco, Silverstone and Hungary. Put simply the W05 does not merely reap the rewards of the best powerunit; it is a great chassis too, and to my mind the only chance Ricciardo has of being within 50 pts arriving at Abu Dhabi is both unreliability and teammate fireworks at Mercedes.

  10. Vettel will have better form starting from Singapore, as usual. He’ll get to the bar that Ricciardo has set all season long and possibly more. It could potentially steal points from him and make it the distant gaps with Mercedes even further. If it’s happening, would RB impose team order to help Ricciardo?

    1. Some people have been saying that all season but I can’t see it myself. Seb needs to try something new as he’s been struggling with the way the new car handles all season and I wouldn’t be surprised if he continues to struggle for the rest of the season – hopefully a couple of months in the simulator over the winter break combined with the designers squeezing a bit more downforce out of the current regulations will see him back fighting at the front again next season.
      Another problem for Seb will be grid penalties, he’s had some terrible luck on the reliability front so far and with a good few races left he could be looking at at least one or two penalties by the end of the season.

      1. I really dont think vet is performing as badly as it looks , he was performing but situations are going completely against him like the Strategies , reliability issues
        He underperformed in some races and if we look in a way even with his underperformance he was matching ric and trying getting a grip on car despite lack of running.
        Vet needs his stride turned in all aspects and thats not only his driving but his team way of approach. But if that happened Ric needs to say bye bye for his championship hopes

  11. Keep dreaming…

  12. Without double points this would not even be a topic today. The math would already have put the odds so against DR for the WDC that this article would be more about him striving to be the best of the rest and taking some solace in that. Obviously it would take massive unreliability issues at Merc for DR to succeed, and then the question is this…for those who were already bemoaning that LH is ‘only’ behind because of unreliability, why would they care to see DR win ‘only’ due to Mercs unreliability?

  13. I’m trying to remember where the chart is that shows how many PU’s, gearboxes etc that each driver has left. Can anyone tell me where it is?
    I think it will be interesting to look at that before evaluating Ricciardo’s chances.

  14. I think Ricciardo is the fastest guy on the grid. Vettel(‘4 time champ’) is nowhere near him. If Red Bull makes some upgrades, he can still be fighting for world championship at the end. If he was in a Merc, he would have been definitely faster than Lewis or Nico.

    1. @gk17

      I think Ricciardo is the fastest guy on the grid. Vettel(’4 time champ’) is nowhere near him.

      Do you mean Vettel (‘outqualified Ricciardo in the last three rounds’)?

      1. (‘yet was slower than Ricciardo in the last three races’)

  15. I like Ricciardo. A nice guy, decent chap. However, let’s not lose perspective and believe Red bull have a chance to win anything. Yes, they will be one of the two teams to scrap over Mercedes’ left overs. But do not forget that Ricciardo and Red Bull are only in this position because of Mercedes problems/blunders as opposed to winning on merit.

  16. I really don’t understand some of the above comments like “Overconfidence make you careless….. ” and “Keep dreaming”. None of us are ‘losing perspective’ as the Merc is undoubtedly a dominant beast, but we admire someone who is going to fight against the odds and not give up in the face of adversity. I very much doubt many of us thought Dan would win 3 races this season, and I also doubt that anyone want’s to hear him say that he has thrown in the towel on the title contention. Go you good thing Dan, give it everything and fight hard like a honey badger to the end!

  17. It would be the best thing that could happen to F1 in 2014 after all the sagas that we have had between Lewis and Nico. It’s very unlikely but where there is a will there is a way and all that Dan needs is a bit of luck that the Mercs break down and don’t finish a few races (which is very unlikely from now on) because I’m sure that Toto and Nicky are right on it with Nico and Lewis and will not let them screw things up like they have done in the past. But here is for hoping that it will eventuate and that we will have at least 2 of the last GP’s go down to the wire between the 3 drivers for the WDC.

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