Daniel Ricciardo believes that, less pit-stop race strategy could help to beat dominating Mercedes at Chinese Sunday’s race.
The Australian ended fourth fastest ahead of his team-mate for second practice session, he done 22 laps on the soft option tyre. And today seems to join Red Bull as an alternative to the dominance of Mercedes.
“The team said we did alright on our long run, and I think we got the most laps out of the option compared to the others from what I understand, so that’s positive, It’s positive but we’ll see, it’s only positive if you can do one less stop in the race.” Ricciardo said.
“The gap seems a bit to close for now. I’d like to say we’ve caught up but I think they have a little bit more in there, so we’ll see what they bring out tomorrow – but today looked OK. We’re making small improvements.
“The gap is a big one so it’s not going to come in one race but I feel we have crept up a little bit more. As I say it’s a big gap but we’re coming, and I think bit by bit we’ll get there and hopefully we’ll at least get close.”
“It’s probably still early to say, I think Mercedes will still be fast and Ferrari looked really quick today,” Ricciardo said when asked about a top three finish. “It’s a challenge to get both cars there but if we can at least get one on there, and if that one can be me then I’ll be happy for now and that’s the target for this weekend.
“It looks closer but I think Mercedes has a lot more pace, I don’t think they used everything today and I expect them to be a lot quicker tomorrow.”
