Daniel Ricciardo says he accepts the “responsibility” of sometimes having to “move over” for his Red Bull teammate.
Team orders is currently a hot topic inside the reigning world champion team, after reigning quadruple title winner Sebastian Vettel answered “tough luck” last time out in China when he was told to let Australian Ricciardo through. Ricciardo, however, said orders must be followed. “It’s not always nice if you are being told to move over.
It’s not nice being that slower car, it’s frustrating,” he told the West Australian newspaper. “(But) it is our responsibility to obey it, unless it’s completely out of order and then we can obviously try and put up a fight and give our reasons. “But the team are doing all the calculations on the pitwall during the race and you have to respect what they’re saying,” Ricciardo insisted.
Some believe Vettel’s initial reluctance to play the team game in China was due to the tension created by Red Bull newcomer Ricciardo’s superior pace so far in 2014. But Ricciardo thinks that even in the context of his huge recent achievements, Vettel is up for a fight. “We know it ourselves and even told each other that we want to race hard,” he said. “I want to race the best version of Seb and he wants to race the best version of me. At the end of the day I think we’ll both respect whoever’s done a better job. “If Seb has done a better job this year, I won’t like it, but I’ll definitely respect him for it and give him the credit he deserves. “I think that’s a two-way street. We understand what a fair fight is and we enjoy that,” added Ricciardo.
