- Red Bull
Ricciardo excited by renewed Vettel form
Daniel Ricciardo is sure Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel will return to his best at the German Grand Prix and thinks it will bring out the best in his own performances.
Ricciardo has been a revelation in 2014 and is currently 28 points ahead of Vettel in the drivers' championship, finishing third at the British Grand Prix while the world champion finished fifth. Vettel took a spot on the front row in qualifying and may well have finished higher in the race were it not for a misjudged race strategy and his long battle with Fernando Alonso, which Ricciardo thinks points to a man ready to return to his best.
"I don't know if the word is improve - because he's already very good - but I'm sure his form, or whatever people are going to call it, is going to come, or it has come," Ricciardo said. "In Germany I think he's going to be very hungry and show that he's ready to take it on. For me it's just to keep trying to improve, keep doing what I'm doing. Obviously I'm excited if there's a bit more in him because I think that will bring out a bit more in both of us."
Ricciardo finished Tuesday's Silverstone test just 0.006s off the benchmark set by Felipe Massa, and the Australian admits he is encouraged by the day's work.
"I think it was successful because we were expecting rain, and that would have limited our running. We were expecting it about 2 o'clock. We had a bit of a late start and didn't think we could get a lot done but we did in the end. Quite a bit of aero testing, strapping bits and pieces on the car, sensors and whatnot, a lot of it just for the guys back at the factory to look at with the laptops.
"Eventually we did a bit of compound stuff, ran the medium and the soft, did a few comparisons with those. So yeah, we got some productive work done today."
Red Bull has struggled to compete with the likes of Mercedes and Williams at power-hungry circuits like Silverstone but he thinks there are small gains being made on the Renault side.
"We are constantly trying to find more. We're not going to find tonnes of horsepower overnight so all the improvements we get will be subtle. As a driver the subtle stuff is harder to feel, but I think on the data it will show soon."
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