Daniel Ricciardo believes he can fight for his sixth successive podium finish in this Sunday’s British Grand Prix, but only if changes are made to the car.
The inimitable Australian finished in fourth and sixth in free practices one and two today, but thinks his Red Bull Racing car is capable of a top-three result.
“I’m still confident that we can fight for a podium on Sunday but we need to make a few improvements to make that happen,” said Ricciardo. “Mercedes are very fast but I think if we get everything right we can be challenging Ferrari tomorrow. Qualifying should be a good fight.”
Challenging Scuderia Ferrari is something Ricciardo has been doing all season. Having finished on the podium in the past five races, taking four third places and a win in Baku, he now sits above Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in the Driver’s Championship, leading the Finn by 29 points.
Despite his season going from strength to strength, he wasn’t happy with his performances in either of the practices, believing there is a lot of work to do before qualifying on Saturday.
“Today was an ok Friday. We learned a lot but there is certainly some time to find, judging by the performance last week we can definitely improve in the high speed and we haven’t quite optimized the car yet.“
The Silverstone track – a favourite among many of the drivers – presented a new challenge today, both with the faster 2017 cars and the typical British weather. This almost caught out Ricciardo at some of the fastest corners on the track.
“The conditions were tricky with the low track temperature and the wind, I had quite a moment at Maggots and Becketts at one point and it felt like the wind blew me across the track,” revealed the Australian.
Finally on tyre choice, Ricciardo feels that the soft tyre will be the way to go on Sunday.
“Tyre-wise, I think most people are happier with the soft at the moment and that’s the trend,” said Ricciardo. “The supersoft is a bit quicker but it doesn’t seem to last as long so I think most of the race will be run on the soft tyre.”
