Hi Guys, I like many on here were disappointed in RedBull when I thought they went for Ricciardo instead of Kimi, thinking they wanted someone to lie down for Seb like what happened with Webber. Of course being a “4 time champion" has some quirks and Seb had said he would give his input into team mate selection. Horner also said they would not go for a driver like Hamilton because he thought the clash of egos would be detrimental. So this irritated me as I would really like to see how Seb performs against a competitive driver in the same machinery as Webber was nothing special and ran him close and almost won a world title as well, further illustrating the dominance of the RedBull package.
In any event, Daniel joined, had less testing time and to everyone’s surprise has beaten Seb with relative ease this season. Has not asked for numerous chassis changes, made tyres last longer, made strategy work and pulled off some phenomenal overtakes. I honestly did not see this coming and have been very impressed with Daniel. He also has a great attitude and I see shades of the warm personality of Valentino Rossi in him. He looks like he could go on to be a great driver like Alonso, Hamilton and Kimi.
Please find below a summary of Daniel and Seb’s seasons;
2014 F1 driver comparison: Vettel versus Ricciardo
Qualifying Comparison Race Results Points Balance
Race Vet Ric Vet Ric Vet Ric
Australia 12 2 DNF DSQ 0 0
Malaysia 2 5 3 DNF 15 0
Bahrain 10 13 6 4 23 12
China 3 2 5 4 33 24
Spain 15 3 4 3 45 39
Monaco 4 3 DNF 3 45 54
Canada 3 6 3 1 60 79
Austria 12 5 DNF 8 60 83
Great Britain 2 8 5 3 70 98
Germany 6 5 4 6 82 106
Hungary 2 4 7 1 88 131
Belgium 3 5 5 1 98 156
Italy 8 9 6 5 106 166
Singapore 4 3 2 3 124 181
Total Best 7 7 2 8 124 181
Results in summary
Best Qualifier: Even
Best Race Results: Ricciardo
Most points: Ricciardo
Makes for fascinating reading indeed, all things considered; new team, new car, new tyres, less testing, etc. If Daniel’s result in Australia had stood he would have been better placed in the mix for the championship.
It is refreshing to see a new star in the sport and the way he has adapted without moaning, complaining and changing his chassis about 3-4 times is admirable. I would very much like Renault, Ferrari and Honda to sort out their power units as I would like to see battles with Daniel, Kimi, Lewis, Bottas and Fernando, a mouth-watering prospect for racing fans.
Daniel Ricciardo
posted on 26/9/14
At the beginning of the season I wanted a first time WDC such as Nico Rosberg, I completely ignored Daniel Ricciardo because I did not expect the Red Bull to match Mercedes powered cars. The two worst power units are the Ferrari and the Renault, yet Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo are the two closest rivals to the Mercedes team.
Sebastian Vettel: 2014 Red Bull F1 car just doesn't suit me
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/116015
posted on 26/9/14
The car does not suit his style as it is not planted on the race track enabling him to accelerate earlier and get out of corners faster because there is no BD/EBD anymore.
Alonso was right. What I do not understand is that he would have had a lot of input into the car, so one wonders why it is not suited to him
posted on 26/9/14
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 26/9/14
I hold my hands up, I was wrong about Ricciardo. I can imagine Seb thought, yup, he's gonna be my bítch.
Even Horner and the rest of the team are amazed by his approach
posted on 26/9/14
Sebastian Vettel seems to be a “one trick pony” but some people believe that he must be better than Fernando Alonso because 4 WDC's are better than 2. Maybe they should pay more attention to the racing rather than the raw stats.
posted on 26/9/14
Plenty here will only use the raw stats as their evidence. Hence Seb one if the all time greats. Well maybe the stats say that, 4WDCs large number of poles and race wins etc.
What the stats don't show is the dominance of one car over the others or any of the reasons for that dominance. EBD, flexing wings, traction control etc. etc.
posted on 26/9/14
The traction control being a reference to a different generation of course not Seb but the argument holds.
posted on 26/9/14
What I actually ponder about is how much pace there actually was in the RedBull cars during that period of dominance.
If someone like Hamilton or Alonso was in it, I would wager we would see similar types of dominance like the current mercs.
posted on 26/9/14
I hold my hands up too.
In my opinion I thought Daniel was talented, but I genuinely thought we'd have a repeat of the Vettel/Webber scenario if you know what I mean.
Fair do's - proving to be a cracking driver and definitely a potential WC (maybe not this year but sometime in the near future).