Ricciardo gained Red Bull’s confidence

The good results of Daniel Ricciardo, especially against his teammate Sebastian Vettel, since the start of the season, have made a strong impression. But more importantly for the Australian driver, his team, Red Bull, seems to be admiring his performances. His duels won against Vettel have allowed him to gain the trust of his bosses, as he confirms in the columns of *Autosport*: “I’m not saying that I didn’t believe in myself, but now that I’ve had good results, my confidence has increased significantly. My feedback to the team is therefore more precise, and they have more reasons to trust me. The team has really started to build around the two of us.”

This last statement is meaningful. Red Bull is indeed not yet focused on just one of its drivers, especially since the advantage Ricciardo has gained since the start of the season is mainly due to his better management of the Pirelli tires and a more unruly car, as acknowledged by the main party involved: « We are on equal footing. It’s too early for the team to say ‘you’re the number one guy, we’re going to listen to you, and not really the other one anymore,’ we need to wait. »

But the situation could quickly evolve starting this summer if we believe the former Toro Rosso driver, who has been impressing since the beginning of the year: If it continues like this, maybe starting in August, the situation will change. But it is still really too early to know. Seb [Vettel] still has more experience than I do. He still provides excellent technical feedback to the team, and to be honest, I’m still learning a lot during the debriefings and trying to understand in the best possible way to improve.

Currently, Sebastian Vettel is 5th in the drivers’ championship with 33 points, compared to 24 for Daniel Ricciardo who is 6th.