Daniel Ricciardo’s two “strong favourites” for Bahrain: “Anything can happen, but…”

RB F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo sees Red Bull and Ferrari as the “strong favourites to be on the podium” at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend. 

The 2024 F1 season officially kicks off on Saturday at the Bahrain International Circuit.

F1 teams were in action for three days of testing last week, with a rough pecking order emerging.

The general consensus, for Bahrain at least, is that Red Bull are likely to be F1’s dominant force, while Ferrari are in a good position to challenge.

Giving his perspective on the pecking order, Ricciardo said: “I think from what me kind of being a viewer [can see], it looks like Red Bull and Ferrari would be the strong favourites to be on the podium here in a week.

“Anything can happen, but I think they certainly seem like they’re pretty good at the moment.”

Ricciardo’s own team - RB - is widely regarded to be the sixth-best team going into Bahrain.

Alpine appear to have taken a significant step back, while under the AlphaTauri guise, they tended to have more pace than Williams, Sauber and Haas anyway.

Ahead of the season, Ricciardo set out big aims for the team, even suggested podiums were possible.

However, it seems the eight-time grand prix winner has poured cold water on that prospect, for now at least.

“Then after that, it’s yeah, probably pretty close, but I would say we’re still in that midfield fight,” Ricciardo continued.

“I know people are getting pretty excited about us, but I’m trying to just bring it back down.

“I think we’re probably where we expected to be. Obviously we do want to get stronger as the year goes on and establish ourselves at the front of the midfield, but I think now we’ll be hopefully a Q3 and top 10 car, but to be much more than that, I think that’s probably getting too excited.”