Red Bull have had a decent enough testing, and strong enough according to Ricciardo to see them challenging for the title in the 2018 season.
With Mercedes and Ferrari already in the mix, Red Bull will have to be at the top of their game, with car and driver performance in order to threaten Mercedes’ domination for the past 4 years.
Red Bull have been guilty of starting the season slowly, and then launching a late surge for the constructor’s title, however, Ricciardo feels that that could change this time round, as Red Bull would be on the money right from the word go.
Ricciardo feels that the car is in great shape and that this could be the best he has felt about the car ever since joining Red Bull.
“We’re certainly more ready than last year, and probably every year before that since I’ve been with the team” said Ricciardo.
“We did a lot of laps, the pace is not bad, [there’s] things to improve, [which] is.
“Going to the race, we have the confidence to push the car on the limit and push the engine a little bit, I think we have much more confidence now.” he added.
Ricciardo though still believes that Red Bull is a tad behind Ferrari and Mercedes, which could go down as bad news, but he feels that they are in the mix with respect to car speed.
“We had some strong pace in testing at times and then you see others, you think you’re there and then you’re like ‘ah I don’t know’,” he said.
“I don’t think we’re yet the fastest car, [but] I think we’ve still got to be in the hunt.
“We do have some lap time to find but I do believe we’re in the ballpark. We’re there or thereabouts.” he concluded.
