Mercedes reliability issues could close things up, says Ricciardo

Mercedes’ performance has been slightly compromised this weekend as the result of reliability concerns following Lewis Hamilton’s blow-up in Malaysia last weekend.

The team has changed running parameters as well as using a different specification of engine oil.

With Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff admitting that the ‘less spicy’ settings have impacted on its form, Ricciardo senses that there may be good opportunities for the pursuing Ferrari and Red Bull teams.

Asked about if Mercedes may be unable to wind things up as it has done in the past to build up an advantage, Ricciardo said: “I am hoping, but I am not sure I expect it.

“I think if they see us start to close in on them, they will take the risk and say let’s turn it up a little bit. But I don’t think they will allow themselves to be too vulnerable. But we will see.

“Even if we can see if we are forcing them to do a bit of that, it could still keep it interesting until the end.”

Ricciardo said he was a bit surprised that Ferrari had shown such good pace in qualifying – although reckoned that even if the Italian outfit hadn’t moved down the order because of grid penalties then Red Bull could still have threatened them.

“I knew it would be close,” he said. “I thought if we got qualifying perfect we could do them, but we just missed out. So it is going to make tomorrow exciting.

“We are pretty comfortable with our race pace and it depends how much Mercedes has to turn theirs down.”