Daniel Ricciardo will have to make his own way at Red Bull, champion teammate Sebastian Vettel has declared.
24-year-old Australian Ricciardo, with just 50 grands prix with HRT and Toro Rosso under his belt, has arrived at the reigning title-winning team to replace Vettel’s retiring teammate, the highly-experienced veteran Mark Webber.
German Vettel and Webber, who like Ricciardo is Australian, endured a notoriously strained relationship at Red Bull, and now Vettel has made clear he will not be actively helping Ricciardo get up to speed. “Obviously there’s a lot of new things this year that everybody will have to adapt to,” he said. “But I’m sure (Ricciardo) will find his way quickly: to give advice is difficult because everybody has his own style. “He doesn’t have the experience Mark had but he’s earned his place and I’m sure he’ll give me a hard time,” said Vettel. Ricciardo, on the other hand, said he is hoping to “learn as much as I can” from quadruple world champion Vettel, “and hopefully challenge him of course”.
David Coulthard, a former Red Bull driver, said he thinks Ricciardo has less pressure on him this year than Vettel. “If he (Ricciardo) matches him, people will say ‘well, he’s really got some pace’. If he beats him, then people are going to really sit up and take notice,” the Scot told AAP news agency. “So I think the pressure is off Daniel in many respects,” Coulthard said.
Info: GMM, Image: Red Bull
