Earlier in the week Badger GP caught up with the Red Bull team at their OpenHouseUK event in Milton Keynes. We had a chance to have a small chat with both Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat (Kvyat’s thoughts…) as well as Team Principal Christian Horner.
Here’s what Ricciardo had to say:
The three time Grand prix winner was very vocal on his opinion that Formula One should be harder for the drivers. When asked if the cars should be scarier and if the driver aids should be scaled back he replied:
Yeah I think we wanna be… I’d probably never say we’re scared but I’d say excited is the word, and we do get excited now but there’s a window for us to be more excited for sure. I know the first time I drove in F1 in Jerez in 2009 with a lot more downforce with Bridgestones, a high-speed corner was more limited. It was more about you – how much are YOU willing to risk the car in this corner? How willing are you to push the car? At the moment if your try to go too hard, the grip doesn’t hold up. It would definitely be nice to get that back. For the fans, it looks more spectacular, the speeds we go, but more than anything for the driver we get that rush, and I think that would create a division between the great and the good.
Red Bull have had a very difficult start to the year with no podiums at all and a highest finish of 4th in Monaco for Kvyat. Ricciardo will be pleased to hear that from Belgium in August driver aids will finally be scaled back to give the driver far more power over their own fate in races and from 2017 the cars will be likely to have more downforce and bigger tyres.
The Australian also conceded that he has found the lack of progress from his team this year difficult to handle at times after admitting,
Yeah it’s tested my personality a bit more this year. I’ve never liked losing. As a kid, I sometimes got in fights with my best friends just for losing a video game or something silly like that! Proving what I did last year has made that fire burn even more. Unfortunately it’s a game of patience for now.
F1’s smiling assassin is hopeful that Renault will be able to improve the engine for 2016 with smaller steps coming later this season, he also believes the chassis is better than it’s being made to look thus far.
I think we’re in the ballpark if we had a competitive engine. Mercedes have a very good car besides their power, I don’t know if we’d be faster than them, but we’d be close enough to start putting pressure on, a bit like Ferrari did in Malaysia. This year we’ll make some small steps, but we’re not gonna find 50% of the power we are lacking. It’s more looking towards 2016.
Ricciardo was inevitably asked ‘the Ferrari question’, replying he could never rule anything out but that a move was not likely. He acknowledged he was flattered by Ferrari’s renewed interest in him.
I’d never rule anything out completely, because I don’t have experience with contracts, I haven’t been in Formula One that long but I’m sure things can change. Dietrich’s said some things in the press and you never know what’s gonna happen. It’s unlikely.
Going back on the Ferrari thing, it’s nice to be recognised by a team like that, I think I’ll take it as a compliment and see what happens.
Would you like to see Ricciardo got to Ferrari in the next few years? Can Renault get Red Bull back to the front? Let us know on Twitter (BadgerGP) or comment in our Facebook group (Badger GP Fans Chat).
