Daniel Ricciardo thanked his Red Bull mechanics for their down-to-the-wire repair job on his car during qualifying after he took victory in the Chinese Grand Prix.
The team had only 30 seconds to spare when they finished installing a new power unit in his car in time for him to take part in qualifying yesterday.
“24 hours ago I thought we would be starting at the back of the grid,” said Ricciardo. “Firstly thanks to the boys – I thanked them after qualifying but today is a real reward for that work so thank you to everyone at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, the team worked their butts off.”Ricciardo got his breakthrough in the race when the team used a Safety Car period to put both drivers on an attacking strategy.
“It was hectic. I heard ‘Safety Car in turn 14’ and they said ‘we’re going to double-stop, come, come’.”
With fresher tyres, Ricciardo was able to attack the cars ahead. Team mate Max Verstappen went off while trying to pass Lewis Hamilton, handing Ricciardo his first position.
Ricciardo then successfully passed the Mercedes. “Sometimes you’ve just got to lick the stamp and send it,” he said. “I enjoyed it very much.”
“Obviously we had the soft tyres, I knew we could get a little bit more out of the braking than them. A lot of the time you get one chance to try. I made the most of every opportunity.”
After taking Sebastian Vettel, Ricciardo’s pass on Valtteri Bottas won him the race.
“It was close,” he said. “I think it was hard but fair.”
“I knew there would always be enough room and the tyres had pretty good grip so worst case, I went wide and I had another crack somehow.”
2018 F1 season
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
15th April 2018, 9:48
“Sometimes you’ve just got to lick the stamp and send it,”
Cracking comment! Best personality, best overtaker and arguably one of the best drivers in F1. Great job by Dan and the team and well rewarded today for their hard work.
Well done fellas :D
Will Jones (@sleepywill)
15th April 2018, 9:56
Agreed, in this era, overtaking ability goes a disproportionate amount further than most other skills, perhaps second only to driving fast without overheating your tyres. I think that does make him equal with the abilities of Alonso & Magnusson and for me, better than Hamilton and Vettel (So far, this year)
GechiChan (@gechichan)
15th April 2018, 10:16
Definately, this is why i love Danny Ric and i’ve been cheering for him for ages. He’s probably not as fast in a qually lap as the likes of HAM, VET or ALO, but he’ absolutely majestic in close combat. He makes these hard overtaking moves look so easy, and does them to top cars with experienced drivers, not to the likes of Leclerc or Hartley.
If Ferrari grabs him for next season, he’ll be giving VET (and HAM) a proper fight.
Nick (@nick101)
15th April 2018, 9:56
Verstappen isn’t good enough to shine Ricciardo’s boots!
In my opinion, Danny Ric IS the best driver on the grid. If he goes to Ferrari, Seb is done. If he goes to Mercedes, Hamilton is done.
Gwan Danny boy!!!
MG1982 (@mg1982)
15th April 2018, 10:05
Really happy that RIC won! Should have been VER the one to win this race… it just underlines the fact that VER is overrated.
Sun Siyuan (@peking901)
15th April 2018, 10:07
Great team work. Engine change and pit stop. Fantastic win!
Phylyp (@phylyp)
15th April 2018, 10:18
I mentioned this on the other thread, but would like to repeat it…
Daniel’s onboards look so boring, since apart from the little steering jink to start the overtake, everything is so smooth and under control. The overtaken driver’s onboards make you wonder why they are braking so early in comparison to Daniel.
Ricciardo seems to have really made the right decision to hold off on his contract talks with Red Bull – today was a pitch-perfect advertisement for him to both Mercedes and Ferrari.
hyoko
15th April 2018, 10:26
Ric, Alo, Kub: Best drivers of the milennium
AndrewW
15th April 2018, 10:33
Inspired pit stops by Red Bull in terms of timing and execution and utterly excellent by RIC to make those moves stick at the first time of asking. Given the team’s proven operational excellence and ability to develop a car, we might just have a proper 3-waybattle among the top-3 teams. I remain convinced RIC would have beaten VET to the win in Bahrain had he been in BOT’s position.
As for Merc…
Granted there’s less room for them to improve given invariant regs, but there is complacency evident in not addressing poor performance under higher ambient temperature conditions as well as the higher rubber consumption on the softer compounds. It doesn’t help that HAM is underperforming the package and already showing signs of getting flustered. While HAM only managed an improvement of 0.003 s on his Q3 time on the previous incarnation of the rubber, VET jumped 0.769 s.
Kudos to Pirelli for introducing a steep step in compound hardness in their choices for the Chinese GP. More of the same, please!
Phylyp (@phylyp)
15th April 2018, 10:38
I don’t think anyone would disagree with you on that, even before today. Ricciardo himself hinted at how he’d have approached it if he were in that position.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
15th April 2018, 15:28
I have big doubts. Let’s not forget that RBR started on Ultras while the top 4 were on Softs. Softs, not even SuperSofts, so RBR was on a significantly faster tyre! I suspect this is the main reason RBR managed a better start and keep up with Ferrari and Mercedes in the first part of the race. The downside for them was about to come because they had to stop significantly earlier for Mediums and should have made them work a lot more laps. It didn’t quite happen anymore tho thanks to the SC. So, I kinda have doubts RIC would have got the best of VET with 10 laps older tyres (be it Mediums or Softs) and given it’s hard to overtake. I think RBR lack of performace this race was almost completely hidden by a faster tyre in the first part of the race, then by a very lucky SC period which allowed only them (from the front runners) to make an extra pit-stop and equip a faster tyre for the rest of the race while the competition was already on 10 laps older and less performant tyres, not to mention that the gaps were cancelled. So, it seems to me more like a lucky race rather for RBR rather than more performance. Plus, also do not think that Ferrari’s party mode from Quali is worth +0.8sec, but like 0.5sec in best case.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
15th April 2018, 10:56
Terrible memory and all, but hadn’t RIC already had to re-pass Kimi after the safety car?
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
15th April 2018, 10:58
If there ever was an audition for a seat at Merc or Ferrari, today was it for Dan.
His drive was nothing short of pure class. He decides where the braking point is, its almost magical! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a driver than has this kind of feel on a break pedal.
Apart from his superb moves, he’s proven time again to make the best of a bad situation. If there’s a win to be had, he rarely drops the ball. He’s almost Alonso-esque in that manner, never lets a good result out of his grasp.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
15th April 2018, 12:08
@jaymenon10
Totally agree. In that aspect he reminds me of Fernando Alonso, if there is a good result to be made he smells blood from that point.
KevT
15th April 2018, 11:47
I think Ricciardo needs a new sponsor. Australia Post. Great driving today.