Daniel Ricciardo doesn’t think he can consider himself a genuine threat for the Formula 1 title just yet, despite his second win of the year in Monaco this past weekend.
The Red Bull driver’s redemption on the streets of Monte Carlo means he, along with the two leaders Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have split the first six races evenly across all three of them.
But it is the Mercedes driver who currently leads by 14 points from Vettel with the Australian 38 behind in third.
“I think it’s a natural question after a victory,” Ricciardo said on Sunday. “I think I got asked after China if it means we’re in the title hunt.
“Lewis still has a pretty good buffer on me, so we’re still on the outside of that. It’s not impossible but not really at the forefront of my mind yet.”
Instead, he thinks the upcoming run of quick-fire races until the summer break will be pretty important to decide what is possible in 2018.
“Yeah, Montreal will be interesting,” he stated. “We’ll try to get a few more podiums but we’ve got to probably prove on at least one other circuit before the summer break that we can win again and then maybe we’re a nice little outside chance.”
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One man who does see the ‘Honey Badger’ as a legitimate contender is Hamilton, however, who sees the improvements coming for Canada as a reason for Red Bull optimism.
“As far as I am concerned I believe it is already a three-way fight, definitely,” he declared.
“Ferrari are still the strongest, and their car was quick here and seems to have worked quite well so far in the season, though they’ve dropped the ball a few times and we’ve capitalised on that. But I still think they are doing the best job.
“Red Bull are due a Renault engine upgrade in the next race, in Canada, so it’ll be interesting to see what that brings. Sunday’s race was not the most exciting, but I hope that the fans see this three-way battle as a great race.
“I love it! It’s the greatest challenge that we have ever had. I’m loving that, and going super-deep into all the technical knowledge. I’m really enjoying that.”
