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Red Bull chance 'make or break' for Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo: "At least short-term that is definitely a bit of a make-or-break deal for me" © Sutton Images

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• Daniel Ricciardo

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• Red Bull
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• Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo admits the opportunity to secure a seat at Red Bull is "make or break" for his Formula One career.

Mark Webber's decision to retire at the end of the season has left Ricciardo and team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne in the frame to move up to Red Bull, with Kimi Raikkonen also linked with the vacant seat. Having seen Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi drop out of Formula One following Toro Rosso drives, Ricciardo admits it's a crucial opportunity for his future.

"Obviously we're still young and I'm sure there will probably be other options down the track, but short-term the way I see it, it is a bit of a make-or-break," Ricciardo said. "It's the opportunity that we could have to start winning races and further down the track the world title.

"That's why I'm here, it's why I race. I love winning the most so at least short-term that is definitely a bit of a make-or-break deal for me. So I'm pushing hard for it but not changing anything, just using it as motivation and all the positive stuff I'll use to my side to try and make some good results out of that.

"I think it would be silly to change unless the whole season I was doing rubbish - obviously I've had some poor races - but to change an approach just after hearing something like that would be the biggest mistake you could make because they've obviously mentioned our names for a reason. So we'll just keep doing what we're doing and try to clean up a few rough spots here and there."

Ricciardo also believes his and Vergne's chances will be helped by Toro Rosso being competitive at the majority of tracks this year.

"If you look at last year we definitely got stronger in the second half of the season and I definitely expect at least to continue [where we are] if not keep getting better. We have also turned a bit of focus towards next year - I know the team has - I think every team now has started to work on that but obviously we know we've got a pretty good thing this year and we're not going to throw it away. Getting some results like we've had has motivated the team to keep working on this car and really try to get a top five or something."

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