Ricciardo also says new Renault deal "definitely not unlikely now"
Thursday 28 April 2016 18:44, UK
Red Bull can harbour ambitions of catching Ferrari by the August summer break, reckons Daniel Ricciardo.
F1's former all-conquering champions have made a stronger than expected start to the new season and, with one podium and three fourth places so far, are already just four points behind Ferrari in the standings.
And Ricciardo believes that while Red Bull may remain adrift of F1's top two teams for now, an expected upgrade to Renault's engine at June's Canadian GP could allow them to bridge the gap to the first of their leading rivals.
"We're certainly getting closer," said Ricciardo ahead of this weekend's Russian GP, where he will test Red Bull's new 'aeroscreen' head protection concept in Practice One.
"Still, I think if Mercedes and Ferrari do their perfect lap, they are still ahead of us. But we're certainly a lot closer, and it's nice.
"I feel the chassis is better, for one, but if you look at the speed traps we're a chunk closer than we were last year. We've got improvements from both sides [car and engine] which is really encouraging.
"Naturally, the chassis gets better as the season goes on, but with some updates coming from the power unit side hopefully these two things keep going up and then we can genuinely at least be on Ferrari's pace before the summer break."
Having warned during pre-season that they faced a "transitional" 2016, Red Bull have already picked up more points - 57 - than they managed in last season's first eight races.
Ricciardo feels the improvement delivered by the RB12 car is split equally between chassis and engine development - with performance gains from the latter even raising the subject of a once-unlikely contract renewal.
Red Bull's long-standing relationship with Renault almost resulted in an early divorce in 2015, before an 11th-hour revision of their deal saw the team's engines rebranded under the Tag Heuer name for 2016 and the agreement continue into its final season.
Now asked if they could extend the deal after a brighter start to this year, Ricciardo replied: "It's definitely not unlikely now. And, if we do get what we hope and what we see from the update, it should put us on a Ferrari power unit level, which is competitive enough for the team and the chassis we have.
"So we might not have that much of a 'silly season' with the power units as we did last year."
Watch the whole Russian GP weekend - LIVE ONLY on Sky Sports F1. The race begins at 1pm on Sunday, with build-up from 11.30am. Or watch the race without a contract for £6.99 on NOW TV.
