Daniel Ricciardo can win the WDC

[FAS33]

how good is this guy? he is the driver of the year, (some say he is the Fastest F1 driver of all time) he has great race craft, attitude, and is blisteringly fast, not only cause he is an Aussie (the other one last year wasn't that good) but he has a chance to take the title out this year if Mercedes continue to trip over themselves, I like how he is beating a 4 time World Champ consistently each race, something Mark Webber couldn't do! 50 secs was the gap at Spa, not too bad for a noob team-mate.

I am loving Formula 1 this year, it seemed like they had no hope at the start of the year, and to win at this track, 2 months ago, people would've laughed if someone thought Redbull could've won here with their lack of top speed, nek minnit, they win the race here. Praying that his wins continue until Brazil, and secretly hoping Hamilton get's Rosberg back to tighten the points race even further.


Go Daniel! WHOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[beau1]

I noticed earlier on that he is fairly close to Lewis now in the Championship. I don't think he'll get near to winning it but it will be interesting to see how close he gets especially if he wins the last race when the two Mercedes drivers inevitably take each other out.

[Hingo]

Winning the WDC will be a stretch but he never gives up. I don't think I have seen a driver with so much self belief. He is very good at playing to his strengths and one thing that he is clearly good at is minimising his tyre wear. He is in a great state of mind.

I think both he and Alonso are making the car look better than it actually is. Alonso has been doing it for years in some pretty ordinary Renaults and Ferraris.

[F J Nedos]

I do admire your enthusiasm, however some balance and common sense might help here. Yes he is doing a brilliant job, and as Mr Brundle said last night "Its always him who is there to pick up the pieces, not Alonso, not Vettel, not Raikonnen".

The WDC is not impossible, but improbable. He could pick up the pieces, but it does require a constant stuff up from Mercedes, one would think. That's probably unlikely.

[OZ_HCR32]

I think its optimistic to think he has a hope in hell. Reanult reliability has not been great and likely to be getting more grid penalties then either Lewis or Nico.

Woudl have been interesting though if the FIA had not taken his points off him in Australia and he had been able to recover from the pitstop stuff up in Malaysia. Another 10 or so points would make the count to Hamilton interesting.

Sooner or later Dan is going to get the Seb bug. He generally has had the best reliability, up there with Williams. Not sure that luck will hold out given the Renault problems and gremlins two of his race wins have had with hydraulic probelms etc that had to be "managed"

[Hingo]

What really made the difference this time around is that the Red Bull was competitive in outright pace and Daniel led on merit. I think he would have had enough speed to challenge Nico and Lewis regardless of their mishaps.

I was frankly expecting them to be midfield at these quicker tracks. So much so that I didn't even bother watching qualifying. I now have faith that he can achieve a good result at Monza.

I think Mercedes have a problem with Lewis and Nico which is only going to get worse from now on. Their attempts to resolve it so far have been unsuccessful and it is turning pretty toxic. I think the reaction from Toto and Niki was a bit critical and overly harsh for what appeared to be a slight misjudgment from Nico. They are so fixated on beating each other that they could still throw it away.

[FAS33]

if it weren't for the double points at Abu Dhabi (not Brazil) I wouldn't be so enthusiastic, the Redbull is improving in straight line speed as well, a couple more wins and he will be up there with the Merc's. Monza next so hoping the get there act together, they should be less then .5 secs slower then Mercedes. I certainly hope so, far out why didn't they run this rear wing the whole season??

[Knowlesy]

They will not be that close to Mercedes at Monza. Everyone will have the skinny wings for a start and, besides, Mercedes have the luxury of being able to run higher downforce with their engine.

I fear you may be getting carried away.

[Paradise City]

The Merc boys won't be dumb enough to flunk Abu Dhabi.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

This thread is SO reactionary!!!

[JoestForEver]

If the princess and media-violence-victim keep banging each other, I can see there's a chance for Ric! Go and get it! I was never going to be your fan, but you've earned my respect now!

[bjohnsonsmith]

He has a mathematical chance of winning and that could turn into reality, if the internecine war between Hamilton and Rosberg is allowed to overwhelm Mercedes.

[Casper]

Originally Posted by FAS33

if it weren't for the double points at Abu Dhabi (not Brazil) I wouldn't be so enthusiastic, the Redbull is improving in straight line speed as well, a couple more wins and he will be up there with the Merc's. Monza next so hoping the get there act together, they should be less then .5 secs slower then Mercedes. I certainly hope so, far out why didn't they run this rear wing the whole season??

I don't know what you are smoking but it must be good stuff. Do you seriously believe that both Mercedes drivers will have huge problems for the rest of the year enough to let DR over take them in the points? One maybe but both? As I said it must be good stuff.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Casper

I don't know what you are smoking but it must be good stuff. Do you seriously believe that both Mercedes drivers will have huge problems for the rest of the year enough to let DR over take them in the points? One maybe but both? As I said it must be good stuff.

The problems at Mercedes have been compounded by the events at the Belgian GP and they aren't going to go away overnight.

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by JoestForEver

If the princess and media-violence-victim keep banging each other, I can see there's a chance for Ric! Go and get it! I was never going to be your fan, but you've earned my respect now!

Instead of being insulting, you could just try using their names. If you cannot be arsed to type them out, I find initials are a good indicator, and by using them, I don't come across as a cockwomble.

So, LH and NR. See, short and sweet. Try it!

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

The problems at Mercedes have been compounded by the events at the Belgian GP and they aren't going to go away overnight.

What problems?

Having the fastest car and two of the fastest drivers?

RBR only have 50% of that....

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Originally Posted by JamesH

What problems?

Having the fastest car and two of the fastest drivers?

RBR only have 50% of that....

I guess that's one car that works and likewise one driver

Vettel threw away a chance to get one over Ricciardo, and then RBR's strategists did their normal thing of putting Ricciardo on the better strategy. If Vettel had reached the "pit window" ahead of Ricciardo then maybe this would've been him winning the GP, as RBR would've surely favoured the car in the better position...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by JamesH

What problems?

Having the fastest car and two of the fastest drivers?

RBR only have 50% of that....

The problems with Hamiton and Rosberg.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

sorry, still can't get over this thread

It's not going happen unless Hamilton and Rosberg DNF every remaining GP. Ricciardo won't be best of the rest for every single remaining GP. Bottas is in F1 you know

[FAS33]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

I guess that's one car that works and likewise one driver

Vettel threw away a chance to get one over Ricciardo, and then RBR's strategists did their normal thing of putting Ricciardo on the better strategy. If Vettel had reached the "pit window" ahead of Ricciardo then maybe this would've been him winning the GP, as RBR would've surely favoured the car in the better position...

hahahahaha! gotta love the conspiracy theorists on here, apparently Redbull are favouring someone over their number 1, might I add multiple title winning championship driver? oh wait, Vettel is still the number 1 driver at RBR right?

[Razzzor]

Who's fault was it that they had to change Vettel's strategy? Why, Vettels. He got himself in traffic after another mistake.

You know even when Vettel did do that pit stop at the end to get fresh rubber, by the end of the race his lap times already dropped off to slower the Ricciardo. It was ridiculous. Vettel just doesn't seem to be able to make his tyres last. He can put in a few quick laps then that's it, they're gone.

I am curious to know if he had an issue in the race. Horner indicated that it wasn't Vettels fault, but really didn't know yet. Did they really have an issue, or was Seb seriously over 1 sec a lap slower than Ricciardo? If he didn't have that extra stop he would have been even further back - I'm sure the McLarens and Alonso would have passed him because he was down to doing I think 1m 55s before he stopped. That was Caterham/Marussia pace. A few laps later on fresh rubber he set his fastest lap, 1 52.9. Ricciardo equalled that on the final lap on tyres 17 laps old!!!

You know this sort of performance , if this was coming from a rookie, or one of the Toro Rosso drivers, they'd be out of F1 next year. Danni has outperformed Seb in every single race this year - there isn't a single race where Vettel was overall faster (regardless of how they finished). I think if 2015 is much of the same, Seb may need to look for another drive. I can't imagine Horner supporting him if he keeps this up.

As for Dani, if he kept his points from Aussie he'd only be 17 behind Hamilton now. And he's won 3 of the last 6 races. That's pretty good. Wonder if Mercedes are getting worried because RB usually do turn things around after the break and find a lot more speed. If they do that again, it's not inconceivable that Dani could catch them on points, especially with the Mercedes unreliability.

[Casper]

Originally Posted by Razzzor

If they do that again, it's not inconceivable that Danni could catch them on points, especially with the Mercedes unreliability.

That's two smoking the same stuff!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Casper

That's two smoking the same stuff!

Will Power's better.

[OZ_HCR32]

Its funny looking at Vettel this year. The issues he is having with strategy are the same Webber was having for years as his team mate.

Subtle differences in the tyres and the car's behavious mean Webber was always having to go with racey or compromised strategy whilst Vettel was able to do more with the tyres and open up strategy.

Vettel tripping over on the weekend and not being able to make the tyres last seriously looked like a repeat of any of the races from the last few years with Webber and Vettel in the car.

Dan is lucky that everything is going his way. His ability to drive the tyre, drive the curernt spec car have all fallen his way.Reliability...makign the most of it at the moment whish is great to see

[F J Nedos]

I've learned two cracker words over the past couple of years. This thread added to it today...

"cockwomble"

The other is "gobshite"

Awesome stuff. The things you don't expect to learn on an F1 forum