Ricciardo hopes again for F1 title-challenging car

Daniel Ricciardo has said he is confident both he and Red Bull can take the steps necessary over the winter break to fight for the 2018 Formula 1 world title next year.

Ricciardo is currently fourth in driver standings - assuming he holds off Kimi Raikkonen (only seven points behind) then it will be a place back from his finish in third last year - and previously in 2014.

Despite initial hopes the Red Bull car would be strong this year, reliability and a slow start to the season have dogged the team and a race win in Baku has not pushed him into contention for a higher placing.

Nevertheless, he says he is confident winter break work will see Red Bull improve again to start strongly in 2018.

“We'll see, this year we again had high hopes for that, next year again we hope to close the gap,” Ricciardo said. “Is it enough to fight for a title? I think we can certainly get close but we’ll see. I don't want to predict anything too early.

“But I think we've learnt a lot this year and I think we'll put the right work in over the winter to start strong and then that will be exciting.”

Ricciardo leads Red Bull team-mate Verstappen, who has been particularly hit by Renault reliability problems, by 42 points and said overall his season had been good but wants key changes to be made in preparation for 2018.

“Yes, I think on a personal level just make sure I fill in the blanks,” he said. “I think my season's been good, there's been some great races but obviously I would love all 20 to be great and not all 20 have been. I’ll assess the year, obviously once it's all settled and then just try and understand what I could have improved and make those improvements.

“I'm sure there's on-track stuff but also off-track. And then just give next year a proper crack. I've been pretty pleased with the year but I'm looking forward to extracting a bit more from myself.”