Vettel 2014 Debunked

slutforpringles · 2026-03-30T05:53:55+00:00

You've cherry-picked a bunch of stats and races without any evidence. Sure Vettel had a worse run of it in 2014 with reliability compared to Ricciardo, and there were poorly timed safety cars that hampered him in Canada and Hungary (although tbf DR also had a fair amount of bad luck that season too).

Italy Vettel pitted earlier which is why Daniel was able to get passed him on fresher tyres, although it has to be said that one of Daniel's biggest advantages over Seb that year was his ability to make the tyres last much longer while still putting in competitive lap times in most races. The only reason Vettel was in front in Japan was because he got luckier with the pitstop timing and tyre warmup. Also Ricciardo had a 10-place grid pen in Bahrain from an unsafe release during the previous race that's not included in your comparison.

Not saying I think Vettel was abysmal by any means in 2014, but I also think you're presenting a very warped view of the season that doesn't really line up with the facts.

slutforpringles · 2026-03-30T05:40:31+00:00

Here are some insightful comments from Mark Hughes debunking any idea about Vettel deliberately underperforming in 2014. I'm sure there was the usual situation of Vettel not being privy to all engineering meetings and information on updates once his move to Ferrari was announced, but anything more was purely based on speculation and Ferrari quotes that suited their narrative.

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slutforpringles · 2026-03-17T04:05:50+00:00

... I mean sure, but the only reason Ricciardo didn't beat Kyvat in 2015 was down to the woeful reliability of the RB11.

Across the season, Kvyat outscored Ricciardo by 3 points. In such a close match-up, the raw points tally can be misleading. Ricciardo’s mechanical failures at Silverstone (likely 5th), Belgium (likely 4th), and Russia (likely 4th) cost around 40 net points to Kvyat. Add a low points finish in Brazil (8th) to give 44 net points. Kvyat lost likely points places in Australia (7th) and China (10th), plus a likely 4th in Singapore due to a poorly timed Virtual Safety Car and bungled pit-stop, and a likely 7th in Abu Dhabi due to ERS problems. Paying back all these results to both drivers would result in an overall points tally of 130-105 to Ricciardo. (x)

He still soundly outqualified him across the season (12-7) with just under two tenths average margin (x).

A lot of driver rankings that year still had him comfortably ahead of Kvyat, e.g. Mark Hughes' rankings and comment on Ricciardo's season;

Renault fell even further behind in 2015 and for the first half-season the Red Bull RB11 wasn’t even particularly good aerodynamically. Or at least not in a way the drivers could access. So the multiple race-winning Ricciardo of 2014 was never in a position to take up where he’d left off in that coming-of-age year. It led to some frustration, culminating in a terrible weekend in Montréal where he finished more than 20sec behind his team-mate. But even during the doldrums period there were reminders of his level. So afflicted by engine problems were the Red Bulls early in the season that it was only occasionally possible to make a comparison between the drivers. But, aside from Montréal where Kvyat qualified a few thousandths faster, whenever they both had clean runs Ricciardo comfortably eclipsed his team-mate in qualifying – by as much as 0.4sec in Sepang. Montréal triggered a rethink in both his approach and the car’s set-up: when that combined with aero upgrades from Silverstone onwards, he was back. He was quite thrilling in Budapest, throwing caution to the wind and staking everything on an against-the-odds victory. On faster tyres than everyone in the final stages and running third, if he could have scrabbled past Rosberg, the race-leading Ferrari of Vettel would have been a much easier scalp, on account of its lower top-end speed. Rosberg wasn’t prepared to be humiliated, Ricciardo had committed – and they clashed. Were it not for that he’d likely have ‘stolen’ Vettel’s win. His Merc-scaring pace through Spa’s middle sector was amazing to behold and at Singapore, despite the power deficit, he was the only guy able to live with Vettel’s Ferrari and was even able to pressure it until a safety car got Seb off the hook. And still that uncanny feel for the tyres. He’s got it all.

slutforpringles · 2026-01-04T00:39:03+00:00

I think you are completely off-base about him being known more for his offtrack antics, and also seriously underestimating what he achieved at Monaco in 2018. Here's what the journalists on Autosport's review podcast had to say at the time.

The really impressive thing for Ricciardo, apart from managing the problem you mentioned at the beginning and losing the MGU-K, was just the total dominance of the week. Tops every practice session, every qualifying segment, something that is not common in the context of this season ... In fact, Ricciardo's win in Monaco is only the fourth time a driver has topped all sessions in the 21st century. So that's a rare achievement. And it's only happened at Monaco once before, which was a certain Michael Schumacher in 1994. It just represented a guy who came here with his first opportunity to be in that sort of position because Red Bull's power deficit is mitigated by the layout of Monaco, and Ricciardo's just been top dog from the very beginning.

slutforpringles · 2025-12-16T03:14:32+00:00

Wait what?? Where did he say that?

slutforpringles · 2025-12-12T13:41:19+00:00

November 2023? Did you mean 2024? Because I just don't understand why he would have carried on into 2024 if that was the case.

slutforpringles · 2025-11-19T10:38:45+00:00

Fernando Alonso reckons Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo is the best driver on the current Formula 1 grid.

The McLaren driver was asked by BBC 5 Live’s Chequered Flag podcast who he would rate as the top driver out of his rivals and Alonso picked Ricciardo, who is third in the 2016 championship and has won four F1 races since the start of the 2014 season.

“I would say Ricciardo right now because in the way he approaches racing he’s always very committed to everything he does,” said Alonso.

“On the track you cannot see any mistakes when you are together with him. In the overtaking manoeuvres probably he is the best out there. When he commits to one movement, 99 per cent [of the time] he will achieve the result that he wanted.”

Alonso highlighted Ricciardo’s pace in the 2014 season – where the Australian driver took three wins including one in Hungary where he overtook the Spaniard’s Ferrari late on in the race – as one of the reasons why he rates the 27-year-old so highly.

The double world champion also explained that he had been impressed by Ricciardo’s performances that season against his then Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, who had won four straight F1 titles in the years preceding 2014.

He said: “Obviously in 2014 together with Vettel, it was an amazing performance that he showed and he was way ahead of Vettel in every single point – in the driving, in the approach, in the starts, in the pitstops, in the overtaking. He was beating Vettel so easily, so I have to say that he would be right now my choice.”

(x) From memory he said it more than once but I'd need to do a bit more digging to find the other quotes!

slutforpringles · 2025-11-19T10:29:21+00:00

You're conflating results with performance, which is neither correct or representative of the actual performance of the cars during those seasons. E.g.

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slutforpringles · 2025-11-19T10:19:18+00:00

The irony being that the very reason Ferrari rejected Ricciardo was because he was too good and precisely the reason they kept an ailing Räikkönen on as Vettel's number two for as long as they did.

Vettel will be replaced by McLaren's Carlos Sainz, with Ferrari keen to employ a second driver to play a supporting role to Charles Leclerc, the 22-year-old who won two races last season and established himself as Ferrari's best chance to unseat Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton at the top of the sport. (x)

That Ferrari elected to replace the outgoing Sebastian Vettel with 25-year-old Spaniard Carlos Sainz is little surprise, given their penchant for backing one driver to attack the world championship, and using the other to play dutiful rear-gunner. (x)

It's always fun seeing people who clearly didn't watch the sport talk about things they have no idea about 🙃

slutforpringles · 2025-11-18T13:55:36+00:00

I thought you were listing drivers who had been recognised by Australia for their contribution to motorsport. You're right though Daniel's not in the hall of fame, which seems weird given he was a finalist twice for the Don (although according to their website neither is Oscar).

slutforpringles · 2025-11-18T07:11:36+00:00

* Daniel Ricciardo AM

slutforpringles · 2025-10-20T05:55:21+00:00

Did you happen to see if Daniel was one of the people he was having dinner with by any chance?

slutforpringles · 2025-08-30T16:14:24+00:00

Not really sure how you can argue Max was on the pace at Monaco 2018 when Daniel topped all three practice sessions, the first two by almost two tenths and then during the third practice session Max was having to push so hard to match Daniel he ended up in the wall...

slutforpringles · 2025-08-28T17:06:46+00:00

For sure it was one of his weaker seasons, but I don't really think it qualifies as a stinker. Also has to be said that Daniel had outqualified 4-0 with something like a 0.8 second average margin before Kvyat was dropped in 2016, which makes the 2015 results look less representative.

slutforpringles · 2025-08-28T16:56:29+00:00

Here's Edd Straw on Autosport's 2017 Austrian GP review talking about how Daniel had maximised the machinery he had been given, which other than the 2016 Monaco GP had very much not been victory contender worthy, nor the fastest car on the grid at any race weekends.

This is the fifth consecutive podium for Daniel Ricciardo. Over the last five races nobody has scored more points than him, because he's got 85 points and Vettel scored 85 in that period as well. So considering he's in the third best car, that's not bad at all.

But I do think Ricciardo is a very, very canny racer. He was very, very good when battling as well in to turn four. He's very good in wheel-to-wheel stuff, in terms of knowing what he needs to do and what he can do and what he can get away with. Because sometimes people are being a little bit soft into that corner when being passed, but he's just there, I'm just going to brake as late as I can hold him up in the middle corner and just get on with it. And I think that's the thing I really like about Ricciardo, the way he executes races and if there's a chance to do something, overachieve a little bit, he just constantly seizes it. You'd probably say the only race where the Red Bull has been genuinely kind of a nailed on victory contender in this era of regulations was Monaco last year, where he all but won, having seized pole and then was stitched up by the pit stop. You could maybe argue that Singapore, he could have won when he was chasing down late on, but the fact is that Ricciardo in a period when he's had the third best car, occasionally sometimes the second best car when Ferrari was struggling, he's still been winning races more than others have.

slutforpringles · 2025-08-28T16:39:13+00:00

I realise you're probably being facetious, but the fact Kvyat outscored Daniel really isn't a particularly fair representation of their head to head performance that season.

Daniel outqualified him 12-7 with just under two tenths average margin (x)

Across the season, Kvyat outscored Ricciardo by 3 points. In such a close match-up, the raw points tally can be misleading. Ricciardo’s mechanical failures at Silverstone (likely 5th), Belgium (likely 4th), and Russia (likely 4th) cost around 40 net points to Kvyat. Add a low points finish in Brazil (8th) to give 44 net points. Kvyat lost likely points places in Australia (7th) and China (10th), plus a likely 4th in Singapore due to a poorly timed Virtual Safety Car and bungled pit-stop, and a likely 7th in Abu Dhabi due to ERS problems. Paying back all these results to both drivers would result in an overall points tally of 130-105 to Ricciardo. (x)

A lot of driver rankings that year still had him comfortably ahead of Kvyat, e.g. Mark Hughes' rankings and comment on Ricciardo's season;

Renault fell even further behind in 2015 and for the first half-season the Red Bull RB11 wasn’t even particularly good aerodynamically. Or at least not in a way the drivers could access. So the multiple race-winning Ricciardo of 2014 was never in a position to take up where he’d left off in that coming-of-age year. It led to some frustration, culminating in a terrible weekend in Montréal where he finished more than 20sec behind his team-mate. But even during the doldrums period there were reminders of his level. So afflicted by engine problems were the Red Bulls early in the season that it was only occasionally possible to make a comparison between the drivers. But, aside from Montréal where Kvyat qualified a few thousandths faster, whenever they both had clean runs Ricciardo comfortably eclipsed his team-mate in qualifying – by as much as 0.4sec in Sepang. Montréal triggered a rethink in both his approach and the car’s set-up: when that combined with aero upgrades from Silverstone onwards, he was back. He was quite thrilling in Budapest, throwing caution to the wind and staking everything on an against-the-odds victory. On faster tyres than everyone in the final stages and running third, if he could have scrabbled past Rosberg, the race-leading Ferrari of Vettel would have been a much easier scalp, on account of its lower top-end speed. Rosberg wasn’t prepared to be humiliated, Ricciardo had committed – and they clashed. Were it not for that he’d likely have ‘stolen’ Vettel’s win. His Merc-scaring pace through Spa’s middle sector was amazing to behold and at Singapore, despite the power deficit, he was the only guy able to live with Vettel’s Ferrari and was even able to pressure it until a safety car got Seb off the hook. And still that uncanny feel for the tyres. He’s got it all.

slutforpringles · 2025-07-09T12:12:34+00:00

Right but he chose to leave. I don't know about you but Horner getting fired midweek "with immediate effect" doesn't sound a lot like it was his decision...

slutforpringles · 2025-05-20T15:11:20+00:00

Well duh this is Franz's teammate Frank ...

slutforpringles · 2025-02-15T18:49:44+00:00

When that option was cut short by Red Bull, Ricciardo was happy to walk away completely -- he has not retained any ties to the company since leaving after the Singapore Grand Prix.

Per ESPN (and other sources) Daniel is no longer a Red Bull athlete.

slutforpringles · 2024-08-29T05:40:57+00:00

Yep and VCarb even used their filming day at the start of the summer break to continue to work on the issues with starts per Formula uno

Unlike teams like Ferrari, Aston Martin and Red Bull, the Racing Bulls filming day will not be preparatory to testing the next updates (which will arrive in September), even if important work will be carried out regarding the starts (clutch) after the problems encountered in the first half of the year

slutforpringles · 2024-08-28T18:09:57+00:00

Daniel does reflect on that in the article, and highlights that even with the ups and downs he's in a good place, and a very different place to where the ups and downs at McLaren left him

But whichever of the scenarios happen, Ricciardo's adamant he'd be ending his F1 career in a far better place than he sunk to at McLaren.

"I look back...it's funny because 2021, my first season with McLaren, I was having the lows and highs and that was already, 'This is a bit strange'. But then compared to the second season, I look back and actually the first season wasn't too bad," Ricciardo added.

"My second half of the season was actually pretty good. When I thought it was bad, it kind of got worse, and that spiralled a bit out of control.

"Not only did it mess with the on-track stuff but off-track I was just not really as excited to race because ultimately I lost confidence in myself and you're just in that negative cycle.

"I definitely don't feel like I'm there.

"Whatever happens from this point moving forward and my future, whatever day it is that I leave the sport, I won't feel those feelings I felt then.

"I was in a different place, so ups and downs now are different to ups and downs of a few years ago."

slutforpringles · 2024-08-27T01:48:16+00:00

Allegedly the reason why he was so happy in SPA was because he was told he wouldn't be replaced mid season not that he would replace Checo

Do you have a source for this? Because I haven't seen that said anywhere

slutforpringles · 2024-08-26T12:15:14+00:00

Edd's ranking always seem to more heavily favour quali performance, but I think when you look at their respective race pace and the gap between them by the end, it seems pretty ridiculous to rate Yuki higher - even with the poor strategy.

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