Ricciardo admits gap remains despite podium ‘promotion’

2017 Spanish Grand Prix

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Daniel Ricciardo says he is ‘aware of the deficit’ to Ferrari and Mercedes despite securing his first podium of the season in Spain after Valtteri Bottas’s retirement.

The Red Bull driver finished third over a minute adrift of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel despite the significant upgrades that the team had brought for the RB13 this weekend.

“I’m aware of the gap to the leaders today,” admits Ricciardo. “I think they lapped up to fourth place – I think they lapped (Sergio) Perez behind me. But to be honest, right now, I am aware still of our deficit.

“I’m just trying to soak up the podium. Obviously Bottas had mechanical problems and we were fourth and got, let’s say, ‘promoted’ to third, but ‘honey badger’ will take what he can get.”

Ricciardo spent the majority of the Spanish Grand Prix alone, unable to eat into the gap of the leading pair but still comfortably faster than the chasing Force Indias of Perez and Esteban Ocon

“I was the next guy – I was the next victim!,” Ricciardo jokes. “But I was wondering – if they lapped me and took each other out, do I win the race but get lapped? How does that work?”

The Australian says that despite being unable to keep in touch with Ferrari and Mercedes in Spain, he is looking forward to returning to Monaco after coming so close to victory there in 2016.

“I’m about as keen as a 24-pack of mustard,” Ricciardo says. “Juicy goodness. Just beyond the mustard and all that juiciness.”

“I’m excited to get back there. I’m aware we probably don’t have the package that we had last year, but I’m still excited to rag the hell out of that car around those streets and remind people of my abilities.”

2017 Spanish Grand Prix

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    Will Wood
    Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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    18 comments on “Ricciardo admits gap remains despite podium ‘promotion’”

    1. The heck is he on about with the mustard thing? could anyone enlighten me?

      1. @fer-no65 as keen as mustard basically means very enthusiastic. No idea why, it just does haha.

        1. @fer-no65 @hugh11 Keen’s is a brand of mustard in Australia.

        2. Get the keen as mustard, but never heard of a 24 pack of mustard…and as for juicy goodness???????

          I think the honey badger has gone a bit mental

          1. Evil Homer (@)
            15th May 2017, 4:53

            Funny comments from Daniel, the 24 pack just means he is REALLY keen LOL. Not sure on the juicy goodness though!!
            Great to see him on the podium again even though it took bad luck from others but with Red Bull current pace, or lack of, they will need that to spray the bubbles this year.
            I am, like many, just happy to see a proper battle between two teams this year, but 3 would be better of course!

          2. Might’ve got stuck into the podium champas a bit much haha

    2. So when does Marko start throwing toys?

      Write off season for Red Bull. They’re almost a 100 points in the constructors behind already with more power tracks coming up after Monaco.
      Maybe some more podiums at the end of the season, but unless it rains every weekend I can’t see them win a GP this year.

      He finished 83 seconds behind in a 66 lap race.
      Don’t think the upgraded Renault that’s coming up is worth 1 sec a lap.

    3. Quite sure Max would have put up a firm fight, he was in the perfect spot to claim P3 being slightly in front going into corner 2.

      That would have been a very interesting fight with both Raikkonen and Bottas.

      1. Agree on that. Ric didn’t have “it” this weekend but despite that, luck went his way. When your on 6th position and 3 of the top 5 cars disappear in front of you, you’ll find yourself on the podium at the end of the race. He didn’t have to do anything special for that, no passing, no defending, just driving 66 circles. And he almost got lapped by the top two. So I see that he himself also saw the funny side of that. I was also thinking: when VET en HAM fight this to the bottom, RIC can be a race winner today!
        Verstappen was asked if he was angry about the accident today: his simple response: no, those things just happen. Last year I was lucky, this year I wasn’t.

      2. The first corner was the only place where red bull could challenge the top 2 teams. Once the race developed more we would have seen verstappen (if he had not crashed in first turn 1) drop off just the same as ricciardo did. Ricciardo was almost 80s behind vettel at the end of the race. Even if verstappen had driven the race 1s per lap faster than ricciardo he would have been nowhere near the ferraris and mercs! And that’s even with hamilton and vettel losing time and slowing down each other while battling each other on the track. Ricciardo or verstappen would have been able to drive in clean air all throughout the race. You could take senna or schumacher in their prime and they would have not been able to get near the vettel and hamilton in that red bull.

        A driver can not make the car go 80s faster in race against ricciardo who is already a top level performer.

    4. It’s shocking how far the teams are behind the front two. The window for Force India to fit into is a chasm too.

    5. I don’t think will see too many times that big Aussie smile on the podium this year. Almost 1 lap behind the front-runners!!! WOW! Everyone outside the Top 10 was 2 laps down. Alonso – 2 laps down. The Mercedes-powered Williams cars – 2 laps down.
      F1 need to hire more blue flag wavers!

      1. When 3 of the top 5 cars crash or brake down, then everybody ends 3 places higher then expected. When you add those 3 positions to all the drivers behind VET, the outcome would have been not so special and there would have been 6 cars in the same lap.

        1. Agree. But even so, without VES, BOT and RAI retiring, we would’ve had 7 cars 2 laps down! Meaning around 3 minutes or more behind the leaders! I don’t want to sound like a certain president, but that’s huuuge!

    6. he is the one
      15th May 2017, 14:54

      This race could be so more exciting with KR VB and MV in the race. What i have learned is that DR is no MV, with those guys still in the race he would have finished 7th. DR smile during the press conference tells it all. He knows it too.
      There would be another batle in this race between VB KR and MV

    7. he is the one
      15th May 2017, 15:01

      It’s a shame that we lost in the fist corner KR VB and MV, this race could have been so more exciting with these guys on board. What i have learned is that DR is no MV, with VB KR and MV he would have finished 7th. DR smile during the press conference tells it all. He knows it too. DR has to rais his level.

      1. You are a stranger to the truth he is the one.

        DR is DR and VES is VES. Only silver and red cars were in the race, everyone else was just watching time go by. Pretty sure redbull knew it and raced just fast enough to hold FI behind. No point buring up engine life if you have no chance.

        Unless VER has some sort of special talent to take his 2 tenths single lap performance advantage over DR in qual and make it consistantly 6 times greater for the whole race then he would have been driving 2 seconds ahead of DR for the whole race provided he kept position after lap 1. KR and BOT would have driven off into the distance without even raising a sweat over the rebulls. The boy is special but he is not a magician.

        Did you even see HAM blow past VET under DRS? No way any other car could keep up with that….

        Was nice to hear a bit of physical pain from the drivers over the radio though – they were working hard to push each other no doubt.

        1. He is the one
          16th May 2017, 19:28

          You are right; Max is special and he is not a magician. All i saying is ; if MV was infront of VB and KR after turn one they would have sweat and we had a great battle for 3th and 4th place. Why i am suggesting this. May i point out to last year victory from MV when he hold KR for many laps at bay or NR in Canada or even LH in Japan all in faster cars. It’s not so easy to pass Max for the reason you wrote; he is damn special

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