Will Daniel Ricciardo win a title

A nice and simple one for our GPG members.

Will Daniel Ricciardo win the Formula 1 world championship? (if it doesn't fold horribly before he retires)

Will he?

Well who knows? It depends so much on being in the right car at the right time.

But judging by his performance this year... Then he has what it takes to win one.

I think he's out of contention and it's now Mercedes with Nico and Lewis, well maybe next season.

He has what it takes, he took 3 wins with a car that's quite awful (though it has improved a lot)

If RBR manage to build a championship-winning ride again next year, we should watch out for him. I never really paid him attention while at STR (I liked Jev, and I still do), but now I have a soft spot for him. I'd be happy to see him win a title.



Stats: 139 Starts / 7 Wins / 9 Poles / 5 Fastest laps

I think certainly the talent is there - Dan's driving abilities I don't think anyone could question. Even allowing for any kind of 'the car doesn't really suit my style' from Seb or 'the car does suit my style' kind of argument from Dan, it's been a mighty impressive season to trounce a 4 time WDC.

As Jim says, it all comes down to being in the right car at the right time. I have my fingers crossed that Newey gets bored with his yachts in about 8 months time and decides to come back just in time to design Dan's 2016 championship winning RB12

Would say that he's a massive chance, he seems to be very cool under pressure so far, but as we've seen from Rosberg, we need to see how he goes in a championship battle.

Clearly the Red Bull chassis is extremely good, so if Renault can make the right changes to their engine for next year I'd say he'll be right in it.

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X (@ed24f1)

I posed the question as I'm not fully convinced of his speed yet. Drivers like Senna, Schumacher, Alonso, Vettel, etc proved themselves from the off in a poor car - you could immediately see they were a notch above and dragging a car to results or speed it shouldn't have been capable of.

For me, Ricciardo didn't show anything at HRT or even Toro Rosso which suggested he was going to be a driver capable of winning a title. Entering this season, I think most will admit that they expected him to pick up where Webber left off - a driver who on his day could be brilliant, but ultimately one who wouldn't take too many points away from Vettel. I recall people disappointed that they had taken the "safe" option.

Could it be as simple as Ricciardo's stock has risen due to Vettel having an especially poor season?

I'm not sure Vettel proved himself in a poor car like the others, particularly Senna and Alonso. Toro Rosso 2008 finished up 3rd or fourth best car on the grid. Neither did either of the other three get seen off like Vettel this year. Perhaps Vettel's actual level is why Ricciardo could be questioned.

Indeed, the Toro Rosso was actually a pretty good package in 2008. And this was back when the actual chassis was supplied by Red Bull Technologies. It was essentially a Red Bull with a Ferrari engine in it. And back then the Ferrari was a stronger proposition than the Renault because Renault had taken the development freeze more literally than the other manufactures and lost out in performance as a result. For much of the 2008 season STR were stronger than RBR and as a result Vettel took good advantage of that. Many people overlook that he spent the first half of the season crashing out on the first lap though :P

But anyway, he's still a superb driver and favourable conditions or not... you don't win four championships in a row without being a little bit special, and only two of those seasons did the RBR actually have a real performance advantage over the Mclaren and Ferrari.

I find it tiring sometimes how people seem to automatically downgrade the quality of a driver or achievement. Instead of saying "Wow! Ricciardo has done a super job and beaten Vettel" we've got people basically saying "duhhhhh! Vettel's @#$%&".

Ultimately you can only beat the completion that you have.

Going by what we've seen so far? Yes.

He's shown all the signs.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2014 10:18PM by EC83.

davidm schrieb:
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> I'm not sure Vettel proved himself in a poor car
> like the others, particularly Senna and Alonso.
> Toro Rosso 2008 finished up 3rd or fourth best car
> on the grid. Neither did either of the other three
> get seen off like Vettel this year. Perhaps
> Vettel's actual level is why Ricciardo could be
> questioned.

Not? What about Alonso this year? Or his season at McLaren where he made many atypical mistakes? Vettel has proven that he can drive, cause he won 4 championships. He has proven that he can overtake and drive good races from the back of the field, especially when the RB got less wing and better topspeed than in a normal race, simply because RBs philosophy has never been to overtake but to drive a race from the head of the grid. And he has proven that he can adapt to changing cars, cause it's not the first time in his RB career that important systems were not allowed anymore.

And now Daniel Ricciardo comes fresh to RB and is constantly faster than him. IMO that doesn't make him the better driver, but it surely shows that he is a damn good driver. I think that he got one advantage over Vettel this season. Vettel was used a very straight car in the past years, while the STR was known to be very nervous, especially on the back end. The new Turbo engines make the cars very nervous on the rear, and possibly Ricciardo was simply better used to this situation than Vettel was. But Ricciardo also showed impressive speed at the end of last season, and there STR wasn't that good in fact. So I think, with the right material, Ricciardo has what it takes to become a champion. And Vettel will share the same fate as Alonso at Ferrari.


GPGSL : Team Owner of 'Maverick Track Performance' (MTP)

The problem with Vettel is simple: Webber.

Webber was rated far too highly as a benchmark. Nobody says they walked to catch the bus quicker than the grandma from No.38.

Slow benchmarks favour anyone from the start.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

That's a bit harsh. Webber was renowned as a bloody quick driver long before Vettel came along. If you were rate Webber as merely average then you've got to downgrade the likes of Coulthard and Rosberg and by association Hakkinen, Raikkonen and Hamilton.

It's far more complex than that. Vettel nailed the exhaust blown diffusers. He was a very good driver before that, as he demonstrated on many occasions in different cars, but he utterly owned that era. We know for a fact that Webber didn't get on with the EBD, and as each year progressed and it was developed he fell away gradually. It's no coincidence that Webber's most successful seasons alongside Vettel are when Red Bull's EBD wasn't at its most optimal.

It's a completely different level of rules now, where the rear end is almost the opposite to what Vettel dominated with. Ricciardo has picked it up really well, but it's had the opposite effect on Vettel. He can't just nail the throttle and turn on the pace at will because the car doesn't respond how he needs it to.

I'm also convinced his head isn't where it was. He had a child over the winter and he strikes me as much more of a family man than any other driver - he's with his childhood sweetheart, he keeps his private life very private and seems to value that enormously. He was (understandably) was flying back home between test days and even flying out early when his days were cut short. I'm not saying he wasn't in a determined mindset, but he clearly had other priorities.

If he can't recover his reputation then he will merely be an excellent 4-times champion, but he will miss out on legend status. I'd see Piquet in a similar light - not a great, but better than everyone else in those years.

Probably the only season Webber realised his ultimate potential as a top driver was 2010(And to a lesser extent 2012). Before 2010 he hadn't reached his peak yet, and after it he was mainly overshadowed by Seb and the blown diffuser situation.

Seb's still a class better than Piquet though, whatever happens in the future of his career. Piquet never dominated an era of F1, and most of the success he had was by either luck or default. Montreal '91 basically summed up his career.
If there's a past Champion Seb reminds me of so far, it would be Hakkinen. When he's on top form and the car's underneath him he'll consistently annihilate the opposition, but when things aren't right he loses his way a bit and his form nosedives. He was a bit "plug and play" during his RedBull years.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2014 06:28AM by EC83.