Ricciardo silences all doubters with stunning Canadian GP win

If any more proof were needed of Daniel Ricciardo’s quality as a top-flight Grand Prix driver, it came in yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix when the Australian kept his head amid all the chaos to take his maiden Formula One win.

Before the start of the season, hardly anyone would have placed a bet on Ricciardo winning a grand prix just seven races into his Red Bull career.

But by winning the race at the circuit Gilles Villeneuve yesterday, Ricciardo has definitively silenced any doubters that may have continued to linger and hadn’t already been quietened by his impressive form this season.

When the reigning world champions announced his signing as a replacement for compatriot Mark Webber last year, opinion in the paddock as to the reasons they opted for Ricciardo was very much divided.

The Milton Keynes-based squad had,after all, given serious consideration to hiring world champion Kimi Raikkonen,who at the time was the most sought after commodity on the driver market thanks to his hugely successful comeback.

So on what basis, then, had Ricciardo – very much an unproven quantity – been picked over one of the best drivers in the field?

Many at the time felt Red Bull had chosen Ricciardo over Raikkonen as they wanted a driver who would be good enough to score consistent points to help the outfit in the constructors’ championship and bolster Sebastian Vettel’s title push, but wouldn’t really challenge their star driver enough to create friction within the team.

Perhaps after the difficulty they had faced in managing the constantly-erupting tensions between Webber and Vettel, Red Bull felt it would be best to have a driver line up with a clear number one and opted for a driver who would do enough to prop up Vettel’s title challenge but not rock the boat.

There were also questions over whether Ricciardo merited the move up to the energy drinks firm’s senior squad and over whether he was ready to drive for a team that had won multiple championships alongside a driver who had won four championships on the trot.

Red Bull obviously said all the right things about Ricciardo and why they had chosen him but their words at the time seemed to ring hollow.

Ricciardo was far from a proven quantity, after all. Yes, there was no denying that he was quick but while he was consistently fast in qualifying trim, he tended to go backwards in races and there were questions over his racecraft.

But Ricciardo came charging out of the blocks and swiftly laid any doubts to rest with a fine drive to second in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix (which was later taken away).He followed that drive up by a consistent run of results that included two podiums in Spain and Monaco.

He has also generally led Red Bull’s charge on track and has beaten Vettel in every race so far this season barring the Malaysian Grand Prix when the Australian was hampered by a string of issues. But perhaps Ricciardo’s most impressive quality has been the composed, measured attitude he has displayed both in the car and out of it this season.

He has had his setbacks – for example his disqualification from a podium finish in front of his home fans at the Australian Grand Prix – but he hasn’t let his head drop and has instead just knuckled down and got on with the job.

“He’s really been outstanding this season…,” Christian Horner told reporters just hours after Ricciardo narrowly missed out on the podium in the Chinese Grand Prix.

“He seems so calm in the car, his feedback is exceptional when he talks on the radio, it’s like he’s having a coffee in a coffee shop up the road, especially with the lack of noise now you can hear it perfectly.

“And he’s enjoying what he’s doing, he’s enjoying being a Grand Prix driver, he’s enjoying driving for the team,” Horner said.

Take yesterday’s race for instance. Ricciardo had qualified sixth after what he himself described as a ‘scrappy’ lap.

His start wasn’t stellar and he kept his position behind the two Williams cars. In fact, at that stage of the race, it was Vettel who was the stronger Red Bull, the 26-year-old having passed Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes for second at the start.

Characteristically unflustered, Ricciardo plugged away and closed in on Vettel when the lead Red Bull was held up behind the one-stopping Force India.

He set himself up for what eventually turned out to be the win by getting the jump on his team-mate at the second round of stops despite Vettel having pitted earlier and taken on fresher rubber. Yes, without a doubt his way to the chequered flag was smoothed by Mercedes’ issues but it was far from a straightforward cruise to the flag.

He drove brilliantly, especially in the latter stages of the race when he had to keep Vettel behind him and at the same time attack Perez in front, all the while keeping his tyres fresh enough to guard against a late-race assault from the reigning champion. Not an easy feat to accomplish.

He absolutely deserved the victory today and though there were four other drivers in contention for the win, Ricciardo was the one that made it work, finding a way past Perez with enough time to attack and pass Rosberg.

“I was looking for opportunities and, as I said, he (Perez) was driving well and wasn’t making any mistakes…,” Ricciardo said after the race.

“I knew we were strong braking into turn one, we were really quick into there so, yeah, once I had the outside line free I just basically went in and made it work. “Yeah, that was the place I wanted to do it - but as I said, I was trying all the time and it was just then that the opportunity came - but I wasn’t really holding back!”