F1: Ricciardo confident that Red Bull can beat Williams in Monaco
Daniel Ricciardo is confident that Red Bull Racing will be in good shape in Monaco after setting the third-fastest time in FP1.
Although he did figure in FP2 – spoiled by a red flag and then rain – the Aussie believes that RBR can mix it with the Ferraris and beat Williams.
“I think it was decent,” he said. “I think we started off on the right foot. There is nothing massively with the car that feels out of shape. So I think we are more or less there where we need to be. Besides Mercedes it is pretty close. I think Ferrari obviously still have the edge. but with a perfect qualifying, we can maybe try to split them.
“Don't get me wrong, to get in front of Ferrari will still be quite an effort but anything can happen around here, it is not impossible. We should be ahead of the Williams at least. Toro Rosso look quick again, but we should be alright.”
Renault's weakness this year has been drivability, and that is bad news at Monaco.
“We have still got some stuff going on but we are used to it now. Each race we do we are managing to drive around the problem a bit better. So I think, as I said, if we can put in a hard lap in qualifying then we will manage the issues.
“Tire warm up with the cold today was pretty poor, so hopefully a bit more sun comes up on Saturday to help us, otherwise qualifying might be a few laps to get it going. The soft was taking a while. This morning for a lot of the guys even after 10 laps the times were still coming down. Maybe in qualifying we put 50kg and drive around the whole session it might help us.”
Click HERE for more F1 news and features.
