Daniel Ricciardo not comfortable on the podium with Mercedes guys

F1 News – DANIEL Ricciardo has backed Nico Rosberg to pip teammate Lewis Hamilton to the world championship title this year.

Rosberg moved eight points clear of Hamilton in the drivers’ standings with his third straight victory in Singapore at the weekend, while Ricciardo split the pair on the podium by finishing second.

And Ricciardo, who crossed the line less than half-a-second behind Rosberg in a tight finish at Marina Bay, believes the German can overcome the three-time world champion to secure his first crown.

“Before the summer break when Lewis made up that deficit on Nico, I thought no one was going to touch Lewis, but Nico has come back,” he said.

“I’m going to throw a spanner in the works and say Rosberg (will win it).”

Ricciardo, who shared the podium with the Mercedes pair in Singapore, also joked that the silences between the title rivals can be somewhat awkward after the race.

“It’s awkward for me because it’s so silent!” said the Australian. “I don’t like silence too much, so I’m like trying to either talk to myself or make conversation with them, but they’re happy to enjoy the awkward silence. It’s quite fun!”

Meanwhile, Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle also feels for the first time that Rosberg is capable of beating Hamilton in a straight fight.

“Rosberg has been supreme in the past month taking a full 75 points and he seems to have the confidence to go with his speed,” he wrote in his column.

“Lewis looked like he had Monza covered with his ‘A game’ until his poor start, but Rosberg was easily the strongest Merc driver under the Singapore lights.

“For the first time I feel that Nico has the speed, ingredients and confidence to take this title in a straight fight but it could well go down to the wire.”

While he came close to nabbing a victory last weekend, Ricciardo hasn’t won a race since 2014, and he faces an uphill battle to cross the line first in the final six contests of 2016.

But with Red Bull starting to gain on Mercedes, Ricciardo is determined to end his title drought.

“Even just putting that little bit of fear or doubt into Rosberg and not letting him take a comfortable victory, even that felt good,” Ricciardo said. “(Rosberg and Hamilton) have had it pretty easy the last few years.

“It’s about time we made them a bit nervous. It’s nice to give them a hard time.

“They’re still controlling a lot of the races. Rosberg did a good job of controlling that last weekend. But it was nice to put some pressure on him.”

With Red Bull trailing Mercedes in the battle for engine power, Ricciardo knows he’ll need a bit of wet weather during the final six races of the season to challenge for race wins.

“If there’s any rain (it will help). We’re performing quite well in mixed conditions,” he said. “Malaysia can get the odd downpour.

“Suzuka in Japan — it’s always typhoon season around then, so that could help.

“And Austin had some uncharacteristic bad weather last year. So you never know.”

Ricciardo said Red Bull aimed to make gains of about five per cent or 10 per cent heading into next year in a bid to match the power of Mercedes.

The 27-year-old is spending time with friends and family in Perth before heading out to Malaysia for the next grand prix.

Category: Formula One