Australian driver and Red Bull ace Daniel Ricciardo has admitted that he didn’t expect too much of a challenge, when Max Verstappen was drafted in to replace Russian driver Daniil Kvyat just before the Spanish Grand Prix.
Max went on to win the Spanish Grand Prix and became as a result, the youngest ever winner in Formula one history. Debut races don’t get much better than that, and it was at this point that the honey badger realised that he has a major fight on his hands.
Since the start of the European season, the flying dutch teen has outperformed his more senior teammate in the Red Bull stable. Max has been on the podium three more times, including back to back podiums at the Red Bull ring and at Silverstone. Last time out in Germany, again Max managed a podium however this time Dani Ric managed to outperform the young protégé.
Ricciardo has managed two second place finishes and a third place finish during this time, but many consider Max to have done the better job for Red Bull.
“I certainly underestimated Max, I knew I had a challenge, I knew he would be fast because I’ve known Carlos Sainz longer than I’ve known Verstappen and I know he is bloody is fast,” he told Motorsport-Total.com. “Max and he were pretty evenly matched, the young drivers of today learn so quickly. Verstappen is a potential world champion of the future.
“I also knew that Red Bull did not put him in the car to create hype in the media. They had analysed in his performance at Toro Rosso and drew the conclusion that Max was ready. But you have to hold your own in this sport, and Verstappen does.”
Daniel Ricciardo is currently in third position in the drivers standings, whilst Max sits in sixth position. Red Bulls form of late has been reminiscent of the 2014 season where they were clearly the ‘next best’ behind the Mercedes team. When the action returns at Spa Red Bull will be hoping that their two drivers continue to push each other, and also push the team out of the clutches of Ferrari.
Do Red Bull have the best driver pairing on the grid?
Ricciardo did not underestimated Verstappen. Only an employee using Google Translate made a headline of, “I did not underestimated Max, into I underestimated Max.”
Well, there are two stories on the internet. “underestimated and I did not underestimated Max” . Witch story is de real one. If you say that an employee using Google Translate and made a headline mistake, still let me wonder why we don’t read about that on the internet with reliable source.
The original story comes from an interview which “Auto Motor und Sport” had with Daniel at which he talks about not having underestimated Max.
I got the wrong German magazine (I just read something of them), it was actually Motorsport-Total.com which has the interview.
“Last time out in Germany, again Max managed a podium however this time Dani Ric managed to outperform the young protégé.”
Only after Max let him pass after teamorders. And Ricc dit not gave the position back n the last round.
It’s true. Even I was wondering myself why the team not give the order to Daniel to swap places again. Daniel could never pick up a fight with Hamilton. And Max was only 2 seconds away. But Max show his good intentions to let Daniel pas without delay. So good for the team.
I suspect Danny thought it would take Max longer to get used to his car. Are Danny and Max the best team drivers? Well, so far, neither one has punted his teammate off the track, so…cooooouuuuuullllllddddddd be!