Ricciardo in no doubt he can win F1 title with "guns-a-blazing" McLaren

Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo in no doubt he can win F1 title with "guns-a-blazing" McLaren

Ricciardo is convinced of McLaren's championship pedigree

Ian Parkes

Monday 26 April 2021 12:15

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Daniel Ricciardo believes he has seen enough from his short time with McLaren so far to convince him he can be a Formula 1 champion with the team.

Ricciardo has so far finished seventh and sixth on his two outings with McLaren in Bahrain and Imola since his winter switch from Renault in comparison to the fourth and third from team-mate Lando Norris.

Yet Ricciardo is in no doubt the team's continual improvement means he is in the best place to win an F1 title.

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Asked in an interview by EFTM, an Australian lifestyle magazine, whether he could win a championship with McLaren from what he knows so far, after a short pause, Ricciardo replied: "Yeah.

"The reason why I paused...I mean, if it's a yes or no, then it's yes. Is it this year? No.

"But I've already seen in the first couple of races...I look at my [qualifying] lap [at Imola] - and I'm still pretty confident I'm not getting everything out of it - I was four-tenths [of a second] off pole or something. Even with that, the team's closed the gap a bunch.

"The rule changes are going to change everything next year, but I just feel like what the team's done, it looks like this year's another step in the right direction, the structure, stability, everyone is really...I don't know, guns are blazing down here.

"It's really cool to see, and that fills me with a lot of confidence to give you a yes to the question you asked."

Given his two performances to date, however, Ricciardo knows he has yet to fully extract everything from himself and the car.

It is why his target from this weekend's race in Portimão is what he describes as "really conservative" when he declares it to simply be "progress".

"Regardless of my position, I want to leave Portugal with a little bit more of a spring in my step," added Ricciardo.

"I left Imola a bit flat. I still knew there was a lot of work to do, so I want to leave Portugal feeling like I've ticked a few more boxes."