Canada will show if Red Bull are title contenders – Ricciardo

2016 Canadian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Red Bull can be title contenders if they are competitive on tracks like the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, according to Daniel Ricciardo.

The Red Bull driver was in contention for victory at the last two races in Spain and Monaco, but the Canadian track does not play to the strengths of the RB12.

Ricciardo, who arrives in Canada 40 points behind championship leader Nico Rosberg, says he is surprised to be in such a strong position already.

“Coming into the season, didn’t expect to be third in the championship after so many races in,” he said in today’s FIA press conference. “And yet we’ve seen no points in Russia and could’ve got more in China without the puncture, and the last two races… we could be very close to the front of the championship right now.”

“I’m not looking at that yet. I would love to be in a position in a few races’ time and actually say we can fight for the title this year. It would be a pretty nice, unexpected fight and story for F1.

“But I think this race will be pretty telling. If we can be competitive here, you never know.”

“It’s still a long shot for sure. But if we can be competitive then sure I believe in myself that I can fight and do what I’ve got to do to put myself in a position come the end of the year. So fingers crossed Barcelona and Monaco wasn’t a one-off, I hope we can fight again for the rest of the season. And I believe we can. Whether it’s a win of a podium… to be continued.”

Ricciardo believes the team should be at least ‘best of the rest’ ahead of Ferrari.

“Realistically Mercedes is still going to be, as expected, the ones to beat,” he said. “I expect we can be the next-best, or I hope we can be the next best.”

“But it’s hard. Ferrari have been there and have surprised us some times and then been less surprising on other occasions. You never know but I do believe we will be the next ones in line behind Mercedes.

“How far behind the Mercedes, I’m not sure. But hopefully close enough to put some pressure on them and grab a win.”

2016 F1 season

Browse all 2016 F1 season articles

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

18 comments on “Canada will show if Red Bull are title contenders – Ricciardo”

  1. As long as its competitive to a fully working Mercedes it could be possible. Let’s say the Red Bull package is competitive to a point of challenging Mercedes, i still find it hard to think that Mercedes will lose the championship. I think the Mercedes will be better at more tracks than the Red Bull will be better than the Mercedes, so realistically if Merc let the ball slip then Red Bull will win it.

  2. Maybe more weaknesses on Mercedes will start showing up if RBR will keep pushing them.
    For instance Mercedes struggles with cooling and brakes when it is behind another car. So RBR: try to stay ahead of Mercedes as much as possible in the race.
    In Canada Mercedes will struggle with their brakes.

  3. Even if Red Bull find the pace to take on MB fully, it seems there will be an internal struggle at Red Bull with no pecking order and Verstappen taking points off of him during the season — no chance Red Bull gets back into title contention unless MB has a catastrophic implosion.

    1. Agree. I think they need to use the strategy alonso used to fight for the wdc in 2010. Let the merc drivers squabble, while they throw all their weight behind Ricciardo

  4. Or how about we just change the narrative that Ricciardo comes into Canada only 28 points ahead of his teammate.

    1. Probably would have been even further in front if he hadnt lost points in China due to a puncture, Russia when he was punted off by his team-mate, Spain if his team didnt switch his race strategy mid-race and Monaco if his team didnt botch the pitstop.

      Could be 2nd in the WDC by now and less than a race worth of points behind Rosberg but thats motor racing.

    2. Or how about we focus on Alonso being only 18 points in front of Button. Or that Rosberg is 22 point in front of Hamilton. Or what about we focus on both Manor drivers not having any points! Seriously, 28 points is what most drivers in the mid field hope for in an entire season.
      Look, you can focus on those points, but it is stupid. Before Monaco, Ricciardo has clearly been the driver of the year. Rosberg and Verstappen were equal second. Monaco hardly rained down praise on either of those 2 drivers in second place with both stuffing up royally. If anything, Monaco confirmed that Hamilton has had a rough season to not be considered in the top 3 so far. I would go as far as saying that Monaco confirmed that Ricciardo and Hamilton are in a field of 2 right now and Ricciardo is on another level, but Hamilton has the skills to close that gap. If only Alonso had a good car and we would have a massive fight on our hands.
      Yes, points matter, but an intelligent person can see past that to evaluate the talent on offer.

      1. I was only making light of the fact that the article mentions Ricciardo was only 40 points behind the championship lead and having a bit of fun with it.

        An intelligent person also knows that “talent” doesn’t change drastically from year to year. It gradually goes through small ebbs and flows(e.g. peaky performances from Hamilton at McLaren 2010-2012 vs a steadier but slightly slower Button) and adjusts with their ability to adapt to technical changes(e.g., Weber failing to come to grips with the switch to Pirelli tires and blown exhaust). 2016 Ricciardo isn’t anything but a bit more experienced from the highly praised 2014 Ricciardo, nor is he much different from the mostly forgotten 2015 Riccardio. Much the same way that 2010 and 2012 Alonso wasn’t really any different from 2011 and 2013 Alonso, (or even the 2014-15 Alonso) but the nuances of car performance showed on track. The fact of the matter is that a bunch of us know all this short-term history within F1 (and each of us with our own view and opinion about the performance of drivers and cars as I’ve noted in the examples above) — but long term sporting history of this era will only read —

        F1 Champion:
        Sebastian Vettel – 2010-2013
        Lewis Hamilton – 2014-2015 (and I’d put money on 16 if I had any to waste)
        Constructors Champion:
        Red Bull Racing – 2010-2013
        Mercedes AMG – 2014-2015

        and the “talent on offer” evaluations will be mostly lost to history, unless we can get Bernie to start streaming old races online. Points matter the most.

  5. How about we look at the facts of the situation? You claim a 5 tenths improvement on your PU then you talk and talk about how you will challenge untill gullible fans buy into your nonsense.
    More facts: lets subtract Monaco and Barcelona because they are both unique events for obvious reasons.
    On average Mercedes are 1.7 seconds clear of red bull and Ferrari are 1 second clear of read bull… how does a supposed 5 tenths improvement get you on par with Ferrari much less mercedes? Add to that a supposed 4 tenths Ferraris upgraded turbo brings.. all i see is a bunch of talk from red bull and the facts dont back them up.

    1. Except for the part where Ricciardo got pole in Monaco, right?

    2. Where are you getting this 1.7 second figure from? Can you give an example?

      In China for example with its super long straight Ricciardo was on the front row only half a second behind Rosberg.

    3. why don’t you compare the redbull times from last years Monaco gp to this years, and then compare them to Mercedes times at Monaco in this and last season, and you will see a REAL improvement by Redbulll- much more improvement in time then Mercedes. everyone says that Monaco is unique in the power stakes, but I disagree with that, in this era with more torque, it is a power circuit like every track – but yes also chassis comes out more, and it proved Red Bull has the best chassis. I think Red Bull will still be behind Mercedes at this race, but by only about .5 seconds in qualifying, and in race pace will do well. Ferrari will do well at this track aswell, I think we might have the closest qualifying in the past 2.5 years between 3 teams. tyre pressures could be the biggest influence with the trick wheels Mercedes and Redbull are using with holes in the rims, which might become illegal soon.

  6. Dan is best driver on the grid, ice cool and rarely makes a mistake…in the best car unbeatable imo.

    1. Danny often makes a mistake, they just don’t get much attention so far. He had two big lockups into Rascasse for example, and ran out of tyres before the end. And I guess you missed all the swearing and his RE trying to calm him down. He’s a honey badger, not a chinchilla. Perhaps it’s the smile factor, like JB :)

      1. Mutton aka jb is circulator always had been..and a develepment driver for honda for the next driver…time to retire mutton

  7. “So stay ambitious and stay true to your dream, Mario. Be patient and don’t force things early in races. Minimize your mistakes. Count your blessings.

    And drive your ass off.”

    Very good read. Thanks Keith.

  8. I am expecting RB to be strong this weekend. I think they’ll take some downforce /drag off which can represent a lot of horsepower, and they’ll have great brakes and good traction.

    Max is looking a bit of a genius on the brakes, so he could push Ricci, I’m interested to see, even though IMO he’s not yet as fast on a lap and race as he’s going to be.

    The WDC is wide open, all to play for. The motors are well into diminishing returns on development.

    Lewis, Nico, Dan or Seb. Each weekend can go right or wrong for any of them. If we fancy Lewis to haul in Rosberg, then if the cars equalise Dan and Seb are only about 20 points behind with so many races to come.

  9. 15 races to go… that is a long long time. I notice Mercedes are adopting a low downforce rear wing for this Canada race, that seems defensive to me, they can be slow in the slow sections – where there is not much overtaking anyway, but no one will overtake them on the straights, even if the opposition is faster in slower sections.

Comments are closed.