Vettel ‘not invincible’ – Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo has made it clear that he won’t be playing second fiddle to Sebastian Vettel this season.

Last season Vettel ignored a “Multi-21” order from the Red Bull pit wall to stay behind then team-mate Mark Webber at the Malaysian GP.

This year Vettel will have a different Australian driver alongside him at Red Bull, with Webber’s compatriot Ricciardo making it clear that he will not be rolling over for his four-time World Champion team-mate.

Asked what he would do if there was a repeat of Malaysia 2013, Ricciardo said: “Well, that would be good because that would mean I was in front. But I would make sure I stayed in front.”

And staying at the front for a Red Bull driver means taking on some of the best names in the sport.

For the first time in his F1 career, Ricciardo faces the prospect of racing against top names Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

The 24-year-old, though, insists that’s not added pressure.

“When I got close to Formula One I’d still look at all the drivers, the World Champions, and think, ‘Wow, these guys are pretty cool, I wish I could be them one day,’ the youngster revealed.

“But when you hang around it, you realise that everyone is human and nobody has special powers. Obviously they’ve got unreal ability behind the wheel, but they’re still human and they’re still doing the same things. Seb is not invincible.”

Red Bull struggling

However, this season getting to the front may not be an easy task for Red Bull as the team struggled in pre-season testing.

Red Bull completed just 183 laps in the final Bahrain test, 105 for Ricciardo and just 78 for Vettel, who was in action on the final two days.

“We’re still a little bit unsure how competitive, how reliable we’re going to be. There’s still a question mark unfortunately.”