Following the excitement of the new Mexican GP, the teams and drivers’ thoughts now turn towards the penultimate round of the 2016 F1 championship in Brazil. It’s another Autodromo that will be the home of the F1 circus for a weekend, however, not every driver is enamoured with the circuit layout.
Daniel Ricciardo is one of them and when asked about the secret to the perfect lap in Sao Paulo, he replied “I don’t think I’ve ever done one [perfect lap of Interlagos], so I’ve got no secrets!”
The Red Bull Aussie ace has never really found a flow around Interlagos. “What I have learned is that you shouldn’t think ahead too much. You have to take it corner-by-corner and concentrate on the one you’re in. There’s not many that you string together. There’s not many corners full stop”.
And the Brazilian GP has not been a happy hunting ground for Daniel either. He was parachuted into the doomed HRT team to replace Narain Karthikeyan with 11 races to go in 2011 and in the final event of the year in Brazil, he finished a lowly 20th in the race.
During his two years at Toro Rosso, Ricciardo fared somewhat better, though in both 2013 and 2014 he failed to make it into the points finishing 13th and 11th respectively. Having been promoted last year to the Big Bull team, Ricciardo hoped his run of form in South America would improve, but he retired from the race with suspension failure from P8. This ended a run for the Aussie of 15 consecutive races where he had scored points for Red Bull Racing.
It’s not often when the smiling Australian is less than optimistic, though his thoughts on the upcoming event maybe best described as pragmatic. “Brazil’s a wonderful Grand Prix with a great atmosphere in an exciting city but the track doesn’t really do it for me. There’s just not a corner that gives you any real satisfaction. I don’t want to make it sound dull, because it isn’t, but like Russia, there isn’t a corner that makes you go ‘Woooo-Hoooo!’
It needs a few more corners and something really high speed. There’s a couple that look good on paper but because of the cambers, you never really have the grip to go barrelling in. The crowd really gets your heart-rate up before the sessions, so you want to be really on it but instead have to be very patient.
“The start-finish straight is very narrow, so if your grid slot is on the outside, you’re about two metres away from the grandstand. You better hope they [the crowd] like you because if not you’re a pretty easy target when you’re pulling your helmet on! It’s a good time though. Lots of noise, lots of airhorns,
trumpets, drums. Like Mexico, it’s the crowd you want for a Grand Prix. Brazilians are cool.”
Given the Red Bull will be running at least one car with the first upgraded Renault power unit of the year and that the Red Bull chassis has always worked well in Interlagaos – so even with a 10 place grid penalty, Ricciardo can realistically hope to break his points duck in Brazil. Reliability willing.
After getting the better of Seb last year, it won’t be a good look if he finishes behind Kvyat in the standings this year.
That hasn’t been mentioned much round here. Not as much of a scalp as beating Seb though is it! Ricciardo’s looked a bit ragged this year. Was lucky to get on the podium at Hungary after driving into Rosberg’s rear tyre
2014 is looking more and more like a fluke for both Seb and Danny.
Danny boy is to inconsistent. Could be an Aussie thing…
I’m am shocked and appalled! Is this the kind of level that’s allowed here at TJ13?
Disgusting…
Alex, you’ve used the preposition “to” where the adverb “too” is the correct word.
example:
– “he was driving too fast”
– “walking down to the shops”
How far will we sink around here? I weep for my children.
—
As for the “Aussie” thing… I’m cool with it.
Continue…
Maybe Alex is not from English spoken area, just lika myself, or probably many more? 🙂
No, no, no… it was a joke.
You see, I’m Aussie. Many regulars might know that.
The idea was to begin an outraged, indignant reply and coupled with the knowledge that I’m Aussie, the regular reader would make a natural assumption about a forthcoming tirade about racism or nationalism etc.
However… it wasn’t. It was actually a useless disproportionate diatribe about a simple grammatical error and not in fact about the Aussie comment.
That’s the joke. Surprise… sort of thing.
I made light of that initial false assumption the reader might’ve had at the end of my comment.
I don’t care about the grammatical error. Look, let me show you.
Grumatikal erras don’t bother for me.
See?
I guess it’s lost in translation. I’ll keep that in mind. Not all are privledge to have been given the gift of English as their first language. Probably why most Russians hate me.
That’s a joke too.
Never mind. I’ll stop, for now.
@Krako…
This is what he does when he’s bored. He’s a trouble maker, so if I were you, I’d just ignore him. 😉😉
He comes with a precautionary warning:
‘If you’re reading this, please make sure you’re not operating heavy machinery, walking, driving or in front of a computer, content may cause spontaneous outburst of laughter or anger”. 😜😜
I may’ve overreacted. I lay prostrate before you, hoping for forgiveness.
In the spirit of goodwill and brotherhood, let me offer help.
Instead of criticising you – AS MY FATHER DID ME – I’ll choose to teach.
Let’s play a game of, Spot The Error.
To, too and two; the story of 2.
I once went to the grocery store which was too far to walk, so I shared a taxi with two other people who were also travelling to the grocery store. Upon arriving I selected two carts. One I kept; the other I gave to the two who were too enthusiastic about grocery shopping for my tastes.
Nevertheless, we – the couple and I – completed our shopping and separated into two lines. Once we paid we shared another taxi – separate to the one we originally arrived in – and travelled to where we met. The trip was fast, but not too fast. I can’t travel too quickly sitting in the back seat of a car as I transition from being relatively well to ferociously nauseated too quickly for conscious comprehension.
Did you spot the error?
No?
*Error*
It’s in the first sentence. I couldn’t have gone to the grocery store. That’s a women’s job.
You’re welcome.
Great apology (story too). 🙂
Except that he wrote “women” when he meant “woman”. I, for one, am not giving up on English like wot it should be wrote. Innit ?
Its in the first sentence
I once went to the grocery store which was too far to walk
should be
I once went to the grocery store which was too far to walk to
Also, ‘which’ should be preceded by a comma.
Your welcome (*)
(*) yes, that’s a joke.
Come on he’s had awful reliability this year that’s robbed him of many points.
(São Paulo, not Sau Paulo)
Let’s see this new token spend…
Sometimes drivers play down when they are in a good car.
We have to be fair, Vettel was attacked from all corners after Red Bull lost their trick blown diffuser and Ricciardo did as well as he did. Now Ricciardo can’t seem to outperform Kvyat but not much fuss is being made about Kvyat having the beating of the man who just last season had the beating of Vettel.
Vettel has bounced back really well at Ferrari, in fairness he needed a change of atmosphere and it has worked well for him. Ricciardo hasn’t really built on a promising first season at Red Bull so it looks increasingly like Ricciardo fluked last season’s success.
We also have to be fair…
Play out what would have happened had Vettel beat DR. Just think about it for a second.
Also in the name of being fair…
Vettel had almost a perfect 2014 season. Since he had been in negotiations with ferrari starting in 2013 – and would have had much more insider knowledge about the LACK of performance from Renault he would have been on exit strategy mode starting in Australia. I say he had a perfect season because he was able to still collect a decent amount of podiums while breaking free from his RB contract and not incurring any lawsuits.
Basically it was perfect set up. DR coming in was an unknown and a perfect patsy to set up as being better than Seb. Had Seb under-performed that strongly against Webber for an entire season – RB’s lawyers would have had quite a bit of interest in the situation. But given regulatory changes and new teammate – Seb had the perfect alibi and was able to sign a 50million dollar first year contract at ferrari and is basically guaranteed to be there #1 driver. This was HIS ENTIRE LIFE DREAM.
If you dont think seb would bin a year after 4WDC back to back for a chance at #1 status and the highest sallary in F1 driving for ferrari – i dont think F1 is the sport you should follow.
And like i said, a perfect 2014 – because red bull cant prove shit.
Well Dante RrrriKiarrrrrdo (said with Italian accent), don’t fret, Brazil “doesn’t really do it” for F1’s triple world drivers’ champion, LouEes Umil’ton (said with Spainish accent), either.
Stevenage’s greatest sportsman after Ashley Young (can say it, both black) hasn’t won the Brazilian GP, ever. Senna fan? I think not.
*Context Alert*
Lewis’ teammates have won the Brazilan GP – in the same car – in ’14 (Nico the Dicko) and in ’12 (Jenson the… erm, never mind).
*Hypothesis*
The answer to this phenomenon may be found in Daniel Ricciardo’s above words.
“What I have learned is that you shouldn’t think ahead too much. You have to take it corner-by-corner and concentrate on the one you’re in. There’s not many that you string together. There’s not many corners full stop”.
Concentrate? Concentrate? Hmmm… Daniel suggests that a higher level of concentration per corner is required when compared to other tracks.
Merriam-Webster defines “Concentrate” as:
: to think about something : to give your attention to the thing you are doing, reading, etc.
Think? Think? Hmmm…
It seems that this Grand Prix may take a higher level of cognition and, dare I say it, cerebral capacity. As Colgate-Boy implies – without agenda – there has to be a higher proportion of cerebral cognition to instinctive, God-given talent in order to navigate each corner.
So, we’ve established that Lewis not having won isn’t off the back of having poor cars, ala ’12 and ’14. Established “thinkers” in the same car have indeed won.
Is this the first real evidence of the cerebral Nico and the instinctive Lewis?
Before some anti-Lewis commenters here have a brain-gasm with this… no, it’s not. I’m just enjoying myself on a Saturday night as my young children watch their movie.
Have a nice weekend everyone.
Heidi, relax… I just made it up. 😀
#ValentinoRossi
Hahahaha, very funny. Sad that “some” people would be happy to follow that logic.
#teamlh
#VR46
Kvyat still has not beaten Ricciardo in a race where Ricciardo hasn’t had any issues from other peoples doing. Enough said.