Ricciardo seeking redemption in Bahrain

2015 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Daniel Ricciardo says he’s keen to get back on the grid and ‘redeem himself’ after his poor start in China left him fighting for a points finish.

The Red Bull driver fell to 17th on the first lap in China but clawed his way back to ninth at the finish and is looking for a better result in Bahrain this weekend.

“We’re optimistic for a better weekend here,” says Ricciardo.

“After my start last week I’m hanging out to get back on the grid and redeem myself.”

After a difficult start to the season for Red Bull, with the team already over 100 points behind Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship, Ricciardo believes there is more performance to be found from the RB11.

“There’s definitely, I believe, more to be unlocked, so to speak,” says Ricciardo.

“I think China was a step forward. We did start to feel more comfortable but it still obviously didn’t give us a big chunk of laptime that we thought was there in there.

“There’s still some balance things. If we keep ironing them out, I don’t think we’ll find a second but we’ll find a fair few thenth which will hopefully put us in that group with Williams and hopefully get us on to the back of the Ferraris.”

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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14 comments on “Ricciardo seeking redemption in Bahrain”

  1. Everytime I read about Red Bull I can’t help but think where they come from with DC and Webber to their four titles and the current downwards spiral they are in now. The went from two established drivers in Webber and Vettel to a couple barely reaching a hundred starts. Kvyat isn’t really impressing me and Ricciardo deserves a race winning seat, but so do several others…

    I hope they find their feet soon enough before the name Red Bull once again will be linked to a mid field team. I don’t think they can challenge for the top six this weekend. Expecting another Mercedes 1-2 Ferrari 3-4 and Williams 5-6.

  2. Is Honeybadger alive?

  3. I want to see Red Bull do well, not because of any particular fondness of the team – especially not the senior management and their recent behaviour – but because they have talented drivers within their organisation that I’d really like to see do well or see what they could do in a competitive car, both in Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

    People were rightly raving about Ricciardo last year, and I was excited to see a close scrap between the Ferraris, Williams and Red Bulls this season and have Ricciardo continue to make waves and put in great drives. Now that they’re just scrapping for points it’s harder to get excited for him. Kvyat showed a lot of speed at points last season and it would have been interesting to see him in a more competitive car than he currently has.

    I hope being part of Red Bull during this uncompetitive spell doesn’t mean we’ll miss out on seeing Ricciardo fight for a championship one day, or that people will forget the brilliant driving he did throughout last year. Look at the current examples of Hulkenberg, Perez and Grosjean to see that you can be the next big thing one season, with people talking of you as a future champion, and be relatively forgotten the next. F1 moves fast, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time can stall a driver’s career – just ask the likes of Jean Alesi or Giancarlo Fisichella.

    1. The Toro Rosso car shouldn’t be ‘competitive’, by the nature of the team an ideal Toro Rosso car should be just scraping into the points. That way new drivers learn the tricks of the trade, get to know F1 well without the intense media pressure on the front runners (bar Max of course). If the car is too competitive relative to Red Bull then it undermines Red Bull and drivers may not be desperate enough to get a drive at the big team.

    2. Ricciardo reminds me of Heinz Harald Frentzen now. Frentzen had a brilliant 1999 season (first season in a new team) and got stuck in a mediocre car after that.

      1. Funny you say Frentzen, he was in my mind while writing that comment for the reasons you mentioned. Hopefully Daniel gets a bit more success than HH!

    3. Ricciardo is still young, there is no rush.

      Grosjean or Hulkenberg however need to be promoted in a top team, otherwise they will soon be considered ‘too old’.

    4. I have the exact same feeling @colossal-squid . Ricciardo has already proven he has what it takes as far as I’m concerned, and Kvyat has gone a long way towards proving himself too. If they both get written off for poor results this season and/or either lose their seat I will be very disappointed.

      I also feel like the mechanics and engineers deserved their success regardless of the politicking of the leadership, they always seemed well motivated and hard-working (although many of the ‘old guard’ seem to have left recently, maybe that’s a reason for their drop in form).

      1. @george Completely agree with you, it would be very easy for people to write off both drivers because of one or two uncompetitive cars by Red Bull, but especially Kvyat as he’s only in his second season, and then it’s possible either might be out of the sport sooner than we think because F1 is so competitive for seats.

        The Red Bull mechanics always seemed like a pretty happy, hardworking bunch, so while I don’t agree with what Horner or Marko may say I don’t want to tar all the mechanics or engineers with the same brush and like you said they definitely deserve every success.

      2. Good to see that i’m not alone on Ricciardo.
        His 2014 season wasn’t luck. What he did was something only VERY GOOD drivers do.

        So is just a matter of time. I know he will deliver when the team gives him conditions to.

  4. He probably meant more shortening is still there to be found on the nose :P

  5. ‘Poor’ start is generous! The cockpit view made it seem Ricciardo had actually put the car in reverse…

    1. Australian drivers, sigh …

      1. He’ll be fine, happens to the best. Pity Red Bull have gone into decline just when he could be proving his talent at the front, though.

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