Daniel Ricciardo feels he deserved 2014 title as "guy to beat that year"

Ricciardo, Canada, Red Bull, 2014 — Photo: © LAT Images

Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo feels he deserved 2014 title as "guy to beat that year"

The Australian finished third in the standings behind the dominant Mercedes drivers

Ewan Gale

Thursday 21 October 2021 08:00

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Daniel Ricciardo feels he deserved the 2014 world title had machinery been of equal performance, labelling himself as the "guy to beat that year".

Mercedes began its period of dominance with the introduction of turbo-hybrid engines that season, winning all but three races as Lewis Hamilton took what was then his second world title.

The only driver other than Hamilton or team-mate Nico Rosberg to win a race was Ricciardo, who finished third in the drivers' standings some 71 points ahead of then Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who had won the previous four titles.

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Asked if he felt his talent had deserved a world title, McLaren driver Ricciardo told the Beyond the Grid podcast: "I say yes, but I don't want to come from a bitter standpoint where I am like 'dammit, I shout have had this, why don't I have the big trophy'. I don't come at it from that angle.

"I go back to 2014 and in my head, my belief is yeah, I could have won the world title that year, if we had the means to do so. I think for me to win three races when Mercedes were so quick, I am like ok, I believe that in equal equipment I was the guy to beat that year.

"There are years that have gone where if everyone had equal equipment, I believe I was on a level which would have got me a world title.

"But I don't look at that... I mean even talking about it, I don't feel that good about it because I don't want to come at it like 'yeah, I am better than who won it that year,' I just know the way I was driving and feeling in myself in those seasons, I was like, yeah!"

Having won the Italian Grand Prix with McLaren this year, Ricciardo brought a win drought to an end that had lasted since 2018.

He indicated he was still in the sport because he feels like a championship is available and added: "There was a time I was a little bit bitter, like 'I should have had a title by now' and this sucks, why don't I and wrong place, wrong time or this or that but maybe that is the growth in me, the maturity where I don't think that anymore.

"I am still here because I believe I can win a title and I want to win a title but I am at peace with whatever happens.

"As long as I can just go out and leave it all on the track, I will get fulfilment."