Daniel Ricciardo will head into this weekend’s F1 season opener on home soil confident in his ability to take another huge leap in 2015.
Ricciardo returns to the Albert Park for the Melbourne Grand Prix as Red Bull’s undisputed No.1 driver this time round and doesn’t feel burdened by the high expectations of Aussie fans following a stellar rookie campaign last year.
“Once I’m in the car, the helmet’s on… and the engine starts I could be anywhere in the world,” Ricciardo told the AAP on Tuesday.
“That’s when I’ve got a job to do and I think the pressure gets levelled out no matter where I am.
“I don’t feel any more pressure than last year – that was already a pretty big step for me.
“Coming into a top team everyone was asking questions of me. Can I be up to Seb’s (Sebastian Vettel) pace? Can I get on the podium? I feel like I answered a lot of those questions.
“I think I’ve proved what I’m capable of and it’s just a matter of hoping we’ve got the equipment.”
Backed by Vettel replacement, Russian 20-year-old Daniil Kvyat, Ricciardo and Red Bull will be looking to upstage Mercedes’ dominant pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg and redeem last year’s third place disqualification in his debut race.
Ricciardo nabbed three GPs last season in Canada, Hungary and Belgium while Mercedes easily captured the other 16, however the 25-year-old Perth native doesn’t sound overly confident of an early upset.
“For sure, (my car) is an improvement, but the thing is everyone improves,” he said of the new Red Bull powertrain.
“It’s really a question of how much have we improved and if we’ve improved enough to close the gap on Mercedes.
“Testing has shown us that Mercedes are still really strong, I don’t want to be pessimistic at all, but they seem to be the team to beat at the moment.
“Behind them I think it’s pretty close with us, Ferrari and Williams – we all look to be next in line.
“I think if we put it all together we can definitely fight for at least that last spot on the podium this weekend and try to apply as much pressure to the Mercs as possible.”
Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images.
