Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Yas Marina, 2018

Ricciardo amazed by Red Bull performance: ‘We could have won last three races’

2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Daniel Ricciardo says he is amazed and confused by Red Bull’s performance in the last three races, all of which he believes the team were quick enough to win.

“This sport is so confusing at times,” said Ricciardo. “Even in Brazil I was amazed the pace we had.

“At the start of the race, I was coming through the traffic, normally you damage your tyres. [But] I could still see from that point I was quicker than the Ferraris and Mercedes. It was hard to overtake but I knew we had pace.

“I don’t know if we got it right or the others got it wrong but we’ve certainly been fast the last few races. In Austin Max [Verstappen] came from the back to nearly win. In Mexico he won, it was going to be a one-two. Brazil, if we’d started at the front we would have had a one-two.

“We know the car was capable of winning, for sure, at all three of those races. So that’s positive. We’re still getting updates on the cars, the car is still progressing. It’s not like we found something massive and we said ‘this is now why we’re going to win every race’. It just seems like it’s been an accumulation over the year.”

However Ricciardo is uncertain whether the team will be as competitive in his final start for Red Bull this weekend..

“Looking at Brazil and the pace we had you’d say we could win here because I always feel we’re better here than Brazil, at least in dry conditions. But then again we could run fifth and sixth this weekend and just be like ‘that’s the pace’. It’s so hard to predict.

“I’m pretty optimistic at this stage. A win, we’ll see about a win, I’d love to say yes, but at least a podium we’re in touching distance.”

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15 comments on “Ricciardo amazed by Red Bull performance: ‘We could have won last three races’”

  1. Whats confusing?

    Mexico it was expected, high altitude, etc.

    Brazil is a tight twisty circuit, Redbulls type of circuit.

    COTA, Mercedes messed up Hamiltons strategy.

    1. Mexico has long straights, the reason RBR has a chance of winning is cause of the other cars losing more power in percentag. Brasil is a hight speed power track, RBR normally isn’t close to the top there
      Max also finished 3rd at Monza… wich was quite absurd as well

      1. Ah, the bending and misrepresentation of events continues and continues by Matn.
        In orange lalaland, Max finished 3rd. On earth Max finished 5th.

        Hahahahaahhahahahhahahahaha, you’re really having a problem you know, you orange lot? Creating your own made up world in which Max rules the track and denying, suppressing and what not whatever happens that doesn’t do well with your distorted views, in the real world, in the real reality, in reality, in real madrid, hahahahahahhaaahhahaah.

        And getting 5th was far from absurd. The data show RB is seconds faster than cars 4-10. Both MERCs and FERs finished ahead of him and his teammate had to start from 19th due to a grid penalty bc of a tech issue before retiring in the race with yet another tech thing.

        And before matn gonna get back at me with something like “He CROSSED THE FINISH LINE 3rd, so he FINISHED 3rd”, spare us the semantics. Everybody involved knew about the lenient penalty of VER. He himself, BOT and VET. 10 laps before race finish already, so BOT only needed to keep being there to beat VER.
        He also had to use underhanded tactics to be there where he was in the first place, cutting off chicanes and forcing BOT off track.
        And then you also have to mention the circumstances outside of VERs control why BOT and VET were behind VER. Namely the fact that BOT was used as a moving chicane to RAI for at least 10 laps in order to get HAM in striking distance, and VET spun to the back of the field in lap 1 following his altercation with HAM.

        Truly a non-remarkable race for VER, yet the orange delusionals spin it, as ALWAYS, into a proper heroic, out-of-this-world drive.

        Now the big question though is whether you can say Ziggoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Hahahahhahahahahhahahhaahahahahaha.

        1. Embarrassing post

          1. Worse.. he even succeeded in totally missing the point ;)
            The earth form the other side seems to do strange things with some of it inhabitants.

          2. @kingshark
            Only thing embarrassing is you thinking you should have a say in this, despite your obvious lack of general intelligence.

          3. And erikje, please elaborate ahahahahahahah. You try to present them like there’s some hidden knowledge/mystery to them, but both of your points seem to fail to have any substance. And like all of your other comments, you don’t provide any arguments, you only spray and spray. And in the rare instances you do come up with data (2 to be exact), you get schooled by me. Every time. Muwahahahahhaahhahahhahahahah. For the sake of both of us, don’t stop now. Keep’em coming, hahahahahahhahahhhha.

        2. Now, it’s true verstappen made a mistake and got a penalty for that, but could’ve easily let bottas go and kept 4th place, could’ve not made the mistake and would’ve got 3rd, eventually no one of those got past him.

          And monza is still the temple of speed atm, so a semi competitive red bull there is great, even if they were clearly the 3rd car.

  2. “I’m pretty optimistic at this stage. A win, we’ll see about a win, I’d love to say yes, but at least a podium we’re in touching distance.”

    Ricciardo, you idiot, don’t you know that optimism is just the thing that jinxes your car? :-)

  3. Are Mercedes and Ferrari saving their engines more?

    1. @aapje – given they have been close to/at the component usage targets that is a very good question, and quite likely the answer is yes – tune down the engine slightly while the WCC was still open, rather than run the risk of a DNF/subsequent penalties.

      Abu Dhabi is a dead rubber, so I wouldn’t expect any such reticence from either of those teams (or, for that matter, anyone else).

  4. Sounds more like a statement from Horner.
    C’mon Dan – coulda’s not your style….

  5. I feel its more tyres playing bigger role which changed the competitive order in the past few races. Redbull seems to have got on top of these tyres and now almost dominating. A win or competitive showing in Abu Dhabi is totally expected now.

    1. Mmm, I wouldn’t mind a competitive showing but mercedes has been very strong in abu dhabi in recent times, I think they’re still going in as favourites.

      1. Mercedes? You mean Bottas? With Hamilton potentiality taking new PU and starting at the back of grid, it was Bottas alone taking the flag at front for Mercedes…

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