Ricciardo bets on points to stay in F1 in 2013

Daniel Ricciardo is not starting out in F1 this year; he raced in 11 Grand Prix last year for the Spanish team HRT. However, he is discovering a new team, Toro Rosso, and a new teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne. The goal for the Australian driver is to beat his teammate.

From a purely accounting perspective, for the moment, the objective has not been achieved, with Ricciardo scoring 6 points compared to 8 for his French teammate. However, the Australian has been in the points more often, 3 times compared to 2 for Vergne.

The goal for Ricciardo is obviously to stay in F1 for as long as possible and, questioned by the Australian newspaper The Age to know if points were a help for his future at Toro Rosso, Ricciardo replied: « It doesn’t hurt. Every time I score points, it’s good and particularly with the team. It hasn’t been easy to get into the top 10, so every point helps – and getting two is a mini-podium, in a way. »

Ricciardo finished the recent Singapore Grand Prix in the points, in ninth place, and he wishes to continue in this way to secure a future in F1: « If I can continue to achieve such results, I think (it will help me). It’s clearly the right path to securing a seat. It’s not a podium, but from a realistic point of view, it’s a good thing. »

But the Perth native knows he still has plenty of room for improvement and that his best results are yet to come: « I want to continue to improve, I wasn’t particularly happy with my qualifying (in Singapore), to be honest. I still want to have a truly perfect weekend, but this was clearly one of the ones that came closest. »