11/12/2014
NEWS STORY
With the 2014 season barely ended, Daniel Ricciardo can hardly wait for the 2015 season to kick-off.
Undoubtedly one of, if not the star of 2014, the ever-smiling Australian is chomping at the bit, eager to resume hostilities with Mercedes and Williams, not to mention his new teammate.
Having seen off (literally) Sebastian Vettel, who heads to Ferrari hoping to do 'a Schumacher', Ricciardo is seeking to build on a season in which he scored his first Grand Prix win(s) and finished a convincing third in the title race.
As if the desire to take on Mercedes isn't enough, the Australian is further fired-up by the memories of last March when he was robbed of second place in his home race due to "fuel system irregularities".
"Looking back, what happened on Sunday night here, if anything, just fuelled a bigger fire which was already in me," he told reporters in Melbourne at the launch of the 2015 event.
"It served me well for the rest of the season," he added. "It gave me a taste and then took it away, so it made me want to get back there. I'm already hanging out for March... to try and get a little bit of redemption."
That said, following a disastrous pre-season test campaign, nobody was expecting much from the Austrian team, certainly not a podium finish. However, its unrelenting determination to catch Mercedes, not to mention Ricciardo's overnight transition to one of the sport's true stars, saw it take a comfortable second in the standings, ahead of the ever-improving Williams.
Nonetheless, having won successive titles, the Milton Keynes outfit found it hard to adapt to its new role as second fiddle.
"I wouldn't say they are furious, but they've lost the number one spot this year," Ricciardo admitted. "When you have something that's taken from you, obviously it's a bit like the podium in Melbourne... it fuelled a fire.
"I know they're hungrier than ever to get back on top," he warned. "My guys have a bit more hunger than everyone else right now."