Ricciardo targeting encore success in Malaysia

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Last year's Malaysia Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo is seeking to retain his race crown when Formula 1 returns to Sepang next weekend.

Ricciardo won in 2016 after an engine failure put long-time leader Lewis Hamilton out of the race. The Australian then triumphed over his team mate Max Verstappen, marking the event as one of the strongest of the season for Red Bull.

"My victory last year in Malaysia was definitely unexpected," he admitted. "I really didn’t think our car was well suited to the track.

"Lewis’ problem opened the door," he admitted. "And then I held off Max in the closing stages to take the win. It just goes to show you never know what can happen."

Although not as hot and humid as Singapore, Malaysia will be another demanding event for the drivers. But Ricciardo's main concern is the nature of the circuit which plays into the hands of those with powerful engines.

Ricciardo: 'Max tougher team mate than Seb'

"Set-up is always a compromise in Malaysia as you need a good car in the middle sector," he said. "But you also can’t afford to lose too much time on those long straights."

On paper, then, this is more likely to be a circuit favouring Mercedes and Ferrari. The same applies to the next race on the calendar in Japan the following week.

But Ricciardo certainly isn't giving up on this chances.

"I think our general pace wasn’t too bad [last year] so we might be stronger than we think there," he said. "I think we can be podium cars, probably Malaysia, Japan, Austin.

“We might need some alternate conditions to really give us raw pace to fight for a win," he conceded.

"I believe we’ll get at least one chance somewhere," he insisted. "I’m not going to sit here and say we’re not going to win one.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.