Daniel Ricciardo has revealed what he believes is the best thing he can do to remain in F1 – drive faster.
While over simplistic, Ricciardo said in a fresh interview with the official F1 website, doing so was the only thing he could directly control that will keep him on the grid beyond the end of the season.
“That’s what I’m telling myself,” he said.
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“The sport is so competitive now. Yes, there’s marketing and other things involved in this sport/business. But at the end of the day, the stopwatch doesn’t lie – and that’s my best way to keep doing this for longer.”
The series will return to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix next weekend, where Ricciardo made his triumphant return to the grid 12 months ago. He has battled for consistency since.
After a lackluster start to the season, speculation was rampant Ricciardo would lose his seat to Liam Lawson at the end of the season, if not sooner.
But Ricciardo has had the better of teammate Yuki Tsunoda in three of the last four grands prix, and was hampered last time out after a poor strategy in qualifying compromised his final push lap.
The 34-year-old admitted those inconsistencies were a source of frustration.
“It’s a frustration because I look at myself in the mirror and say I can do this very, very well so how do I make sure I do it consistently? Because if I do, I’m laughing. But it’s more positive than negative,” he said.
“There will be a day when I won’t be able to do it as good, but I’m much rather have these sporadic good days that it shows I’ve still got those capabilities to do something great – and then it’s up to me to unlock it more often.”
Despite the speculation around his future, the narrative over the past few weeks has turned from one of despair as he faces the axe, to redemption as he finds himself in the conversation to make a shock return to the senior Red Bull team alongside Max Verstappen.
Sergio Perez‘s poor run of form has left the team vulnerable to McLaren and Ferrari in the constructors championship.
Lawson is believed to be a chance to be inserted straight into the senior Red Bull team. What happens to the Mexican and Ricciardo after that though would be anyone’s guess.
Despite all this, Ricciardo is still highly-rated within the Red Bull ranks. It’s considered unlikely the team would dump him unless they were sure any replacement would do a better job.
Lawson took part in an aerodynamic test at Silverstone last week. The fact there has been no word from Red Bull on how he performed could be an indication they don’t believe he’s ready – at least to jump straight into a Red Bull and bypass RB.
Although this interview took part during the British Grand Prix weekend, Ricciardo said he wasn’t paying attention to the outside noise.
“There will be tough days ahead, there will be lows, but I still love the anticipation of a race week, I love the opportunity,” he said.
“There’s the curiosity – could this week be a standout week, could something special happen? I still believe it can – so that’s where that excitement still lies and remains.
“The competition is great. Of course I have won before, and I love nothing more than winning, but right now, scoring points is our little victory – so that’s the fight.
“If I have managed to do that, I’ll leave the track happy – and I’m sure I’ll have fun.”