Breaking news

Formula 1 Canadian GP

Ricciardo: Having Mercedes power might be "scary"

Daniel Ricciardo has joked that it would be "scary" to have the amount of engine power the Mercedes Formula 1 team has with its qualifying engine modes

Glenn Freeman

Edited: Jun 10, 2017, 9:00 PM

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB13

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB13

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB13

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB13 and Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB13

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB13

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB13

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB13

The Renault-powered Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were 0.2-0.3 seconds off the pace set by Lewis Hamilton in the second segment of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, but in Q3 they were 0.9-1.0s off the pace – a deficit that the team has frequently put down to Mercedes having special engine modes for the final part of qualifying in the V6 turbo hybrid era.

"Q2 we all looked pretty close, even to the leaders, but then in Q3 they all turned it up," Ricciardo told reporters on Saturday.

"They've got something special in Q3. We'd love to have the Mercedes power, what they had in Q3, that might be scary, actually!

"Going down the straights, we might brake really early because the speed is so high. It would be nice to have more, but I guess we're used to this position.

"We're still trying to do what we can with the chassis, we've brought quite a lot to the car this week and I think it is working but it's still hard to quantify when we're down [on power] in Q3 like that.

"Mercedes are strong, I'm not convinced they can hold that in the race – I'm sure the power they have to turn down a bit and on tyres they don't seem as comfortable as last year.

"I don't think they'll have it easy against Ferrari, and I feel like we will be closer than we were on one lap."

Verstappen, who narrowly outqualified Ricciardo to take fifth on the grid, said there was no point dwelling on the engine deficit.

"In Q2 everything was very close, but in Q3 we know they can turn up their engines, and then it was quite a big gap," he said.

"You can't change the situation. You would like to have it, but if it's not there, it's not there. You can be disappointed, you can get angry, but that will not solve anything.

"It's better to be positive and make the best of the situation you're in. Every track is different, but here you can clearly see from Q2 to Q3 what the difference became.

"This is not our track, so with the long straights of course the gap will be bigger than in Monaco, for example."

Additional reporting by Lawrence Barretto

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Read also :

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

Previous article Raikkonen "paid the price" for ill-timed Q3 mistake

Next article Wehrlein set for grid penalty after Q1 crash

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

More from

Glenn Freeman



F1 2019 game to allow official driver transfers

Esports

Esports

F1 2019 game to allow official driver transfers



Albon keeps Toro Rosso on top in morning of Day 4

Formula 1

Formula 1

Barcelona February testing

Albon keeps Toro Rosso on top in morning of Day 4



Raikkonen fastest for Alfa on third morning of F1 test

Formula 1

Formula 1

Barcelona February testing

Raikkonen fastest for Alfa on third morning of F1 test

More from

Daniel Ricciardo



Daniel Ricciardo shares heartfelt message after first Indy 500 visit brought back "childhood feelings"

Formula 1

Formula 1

Barcelona-Catalunya GP

Daniel Ricciardo shares heartfelt message after first Indy 500 visit brought back "childhood feelings"



Lando Norris reunites with Daniel Ricciardo for Indy 500 celebrations after disastrous Canadian GP

Formula 1

Formula 1

Canadian GP

Lando Norris reunites with Daniel Ricciardo for Indy 500 celebrations after disastrous Canadian GP



Daniel Ricciardo says life feels "more real" after abrupt F1 exit

Formula 1

Formula 1

Canadian GP

Daniel Ricciardo says life feels "more real" after abrupt F1 exit

More from

Red Bull Racing



Did Max Verstappen already know the impact of Red Bull’s big upgrade when he signed his new deal?

Formula 1

Formula 1

Singapore GP

11 h

Did Max Verstappen already know the impact of Red Bull’s big upgrade when he signed his new deal?



Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense



Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Formula 1

Singapore GP

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Latest news



Colton Herta “maybe underestimated the difference” from IndyCar – F2 boss

FIA F2

F2 FIA F2 3 h

Colton Herta “maybe underestimated the difference” from IndyCar – F2 boss



WEC Barcelona: Genesis secures maiden series pole from Toyota

WEC

WEC WEC

Barcelona

4 h

WEC Barcelona: Genesis secures maiden series pole from Toyota



Five-time IndyCar champion, first-time Indy NXT driver: Alex Palou tops IMS road course test

Indy NXT

IndL Indy NXT 5 h

Five-time IndyCar champion, first-time Indy NXT driver: Alex Palou tops IMS road course test



Gabriel Bortoleto on Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar's F1 success: 'Let's see where we are in 20 years'

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

6 h

Gabriel Bortoleto on Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar's F1 success: 'Let's see where we are in 20 years'

Feature

Discover prime content



Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027



Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense



Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin



Laurent Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Christian Horner?

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Laurent Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Christian Horner?

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts

Subscribe