Ricciardo not Thinking about Drivers’ Title

There are hardly any moments where we see Daniel Ricciardo upset or throwing tantrums. He is the laughing assassin, a driver who you can never take lightly. After this weekend, that smile on his face would have only grown wider.

Ricciardo spectacularly erased the horrid memories he had of the 2016 race in the Principality, where a delayed pit-stop robbed him of victory. This time around, he timed his stop well, managed to stay in front the whole time and dealt with a power loss issue to take victory from second-placed Vettel.

This win gives him his second of the season following an epic victory in China and puts him at par with Hamilton and Vettel for number of wins this season. Naturally one would expect him to start believing in his chances of winning the drivers’ title this season.

But Ricciardo has downplayed it all. He said, “I think it’s a natural question after a victory. 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 (38 points), so we’re still on the outside of that. It’s not impossible but not really at the forefront of my mind yet. But, even if it was, I’m not going to change obviously the way that I’m driving or trying to attack.”

The Australian has also won in Montreal before, in 2014, the scene for the next race. Speaking about it, he said, “So yeah, Montreal will be interesting. I’ll try to get a few more podiums, but yeah, 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.”

Renault, Red Bull’s current engine partners are set to bring an update to the Canadian Grand Prix and Red Bull Principal, Christian Horner hopes that can spur them to victory. “I think we’ve had a good chassis from the first race, the problem has always been Saturday. Here we got the pole position and we won the race even with a problem”, said Horner.

“If we can improve our Saturdays then our races will be competitive. That is our fourth fastest lap we have set in six races now in race conditions. If we can get a little bit more in Q3 on peak power then there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to give Mercedes and Ferrari a hard time”, added the Red Bull chief.