HUNGARORING -- After topping Friday's practice sessions for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo is confident Red Bull will remain competitive throughout the upcoming race weekend.
Red Bull has brought a series of updates to its car ahead of this weekend's race, including a number of tweaks to aero devices ahead of the sidepods and leading edge of the floor. The high-downforce and relatively low-speed nature of the Hungaroring should suit the Red Bull, and after topping Friday practice Ricciardo is confident he can take the fight to championship leaders Ferrari and Mercedes.
"Today says yes [we can fight for pole], so let's see tomorrow," he said. "I got good confidence after today. Happy."
After Red Bull made a disappointing start to F1's new era of faster, wider cars, there has been constant speculation that the team will introduce a B-spec car at some point this year. Asked if the latest set of upgrades were big enough to warrant the B-spec title, Ricciardo said the early signs suggested a significant step.
"If we can maintain this tomorrow it is a B car, so today it certainly behaved more like a B. This morning looked strong, out of the box we were the first one on a green track and basically we kept good pace. Even the long runs were strong, and this afternoon we were able to replicate that with an even hotter track."
Ricciardo sees the rest of the weekend as a good opportunity for Red Bull to challenge at the front.
"We know this track is one that suits us, so if we can extract every bit of that out of the car we may have a shot at fighting for big points this weekend, so it has been a good day. I am pretty happy. I genuinely feel we can stay at the pointy end tomorrow."