Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Ricciardo targets at least one win in 2016

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Daniel Ricciardo is targeting at least one victory in 2016 as Red Bull recovers from a disappointing year last season.

In his first season with Red Bull, Ricciardo scored three wins and finished third in the drivers' championship behind the dominant Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Having been targeting the championship going in to 2015, Ricciardo was left disappointed by an uncompetitive Renault power unit which limited him to just two podiums.

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At the launch of Red Bull's 2016 livery, when asked for his targets for this season Ricciardo replied: "At the end of the season, a victory.

"I’d love to say more but realistically, one would be a good start. Last year we just got two podiums, one victory should mean a few podiums along the way so victory in Monaco would be alright!"

While Red Bull will again run a Tag Heuer-branded Renault power unit this year, Ricciardo is confident it will see a much better development curve this season.

"A win is what I would hope, I say that thinking the season is long. if it comes, I don’t think it is is going to come straight away. I think it has to be better, it’s just a case of how much better. The first few races, it’ll be more or less like last year but once we get into the European season, we should start to really develop more.

"There is a lot of room for improvement with the power unit, even more than Mercedes and Ferrari. If we can get the right sort of ingredients behind it this year, we should see a bigger step. I think it will come, we have had a few years with these power units so whatever got misunderstood last year, there has been enough time to understand it for this year."

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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.