- Red Bull
Ricciardo admires Vettel for 2014 attitude
Daniel Ricciardo says he has a better relationship with Sebastian Vettel than any other team-mate in his career.
Ricciardo's first season at Red Bull has been a huge success, with three victories propelling him to third in the drivers' championship. Daniel Ricciardo's predecessor, Mark Webber, endured a frosty relationship with Vettel during his time at Red Bull but his fellow Australian admires the way the reigning world champion has acted with his new team-mate in 2014.
"To be honest, I really think Seb has been a team-mate I've got on the best with," Ricciardo said. "Nothing against previous team-mates, not at all, but I just think the respect he's shown for me has always remained high. It's easy after my first win, when he congratulated me, but even after [finishing] second and third he was still as humble as he could have been. I earnt more respect for him for the way he showed it to me so that was very nice."
One of the most impressive parts of Ricciardo's season has been his overtaking, with the Australian having memorable battles with former world champions Vettel and Fernando Alonso. Having struggled to demonstrate this at HRT and Toro Rosso Ricciardo says the confidence he gained from joining Red Bull has been key to his on-track performances.
"I think with overtaking one strong thing with that is it comes with confidence. You need confidence in yourself and the car and I've felt that from the first race. There was also a bit of a monkey on my shoulder for the past few years that was perhaps not being aggressive or attacking enough. It was something I wanted to change. I knew it was somewhere inside me, I was quite aggressive in go-karts back in the day, so I knew it was there.
"I got the confidence this year and once you start to do it a few times it actually becomes a bit easier. It's nice, I feel like I got over the hill and feel like I can stay that side of the hill for good. Fortunately there's been a lot. The one's for the victory have been awesome but I think the one in Monza on Seb was pretty cool, it's something I've never actually done before, backed out of a move to make a move. That was all instinct, so it was pretty fun."
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