Daniel Ricciardo does think he has the pace to challenge for a second pole in his Formula 1 career, after both practice sessions for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday.
Last year, the Australian would capitalise on Red Bull’s improved competitiveness on high downforce circuits to claim his first top spot in qualifying in Monaco, now at the Hungaroring, a similar kind of circuit, a number of upgrades brought by the Milton Keynes outfit do appear to be making them genuine contenders once again.
“A good day topping both sessions, nice to be quick,” Ricciardo said. “We brought some updates, they seem to be working. You never know what the other guys are doing, but I do feel like we have gained some grip in the car.
“I wasn’t complaining too much on the radio today, so we have definitely stepped in the right direction. I genuinely feel we can stay at the pointy end tomorrow.”
The issue the 28-year-old and Red Bull face is single lap pace is usually a key weakness due to more powerful engine modes Ferrari and particularly Mercedes have available. But with less power sometimes resulting in better traction as less energy is put through the rear wheels, those modes can sometimes be a hindrance at a high downforce track.
“Today says yes, so let’s see tomorrow,” he said of whether P1 was possible in qualifying.
“I got good confidence after today. Happy,” Ricciardo added.
The man from Perth does remain wary of what Red Bull’s rivals could have up their sleeve.
“To replicate the same pace this morning in the afternoon is positive [but] you don’t know what Ferrari and Mercedes are going to come up with,” he admitted. “It looked like Ferrari found a bit more pace this afternoon, but we are still ahead. We will see tomorrow but a positive day.”
While Ricciardo led, teammate Max Verstappen found the going a little harder. The Dutchman would be compromised by the incidents in Practice 2 but conceded he didn’t have as much confidence in his car.
“The first practice I was just not feeling well with the balance,” the 19-year-old said, “we changed a lot of parts on the car for the second practice and I was looking good I just got interrupted with the red flags.”
“I could never really do a proper run on the supersofts then I decided after the first red flag to do another shot on used tyres and then all the sector times were fine, so we are there, just not on the timing but tomorrow we’ll certainly be.”
He was also upbeat about expectations for qualifying, rejecting a claim hoping for pole for “hopeless”.
“It’s never hopeless, I think we are in a lot better position than in previous races,” he responded.
“Of course I think we still need to find a bit of pace, to really fight Mercedes in qualifying, but for us, I think it was already a very positive Friday and just looking forward to tomorrow to try to get a bit of a better balance again and then it will be quite interesting.”
