Ricciardo sees opportunity in Verstappen pairing

Daniel Ricciardo believes having Max Verstappen as his Red Bull team-mate represents a new challenge which he can capitalise on.

Verstappen has been promoted from Toro Rosso, replacing Daniil Kvyat from this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix onwards. Ricciardo says the hype surrounding his new team-mate provides him with a different test which he can use to increase his own standing and improve further as a driver.

"Yes I think it is a good chance for me definitely," Verstappen said. "Having any new team-mate is a challenge. Max is young, he is fast. He has had a lot of interest since he got into F1 because of his age, but then there was some good results and that.

"Sure a lot of people expect big things from him, whether it is tomorrow or in years to come, so for me it is another good guy to measure against. But also a new team-mate, he is young so he’d like some experience compared to Sebastian Vettel who I had in 2014. But sure there are still things he can learn.

"I know he is fast and I am sure he will bring something to the table that I can learn or challenge myself with, so I am looking forward to it. That is what I thought when Christian [Horner] told me that I would have a new team-mate in Barcelona. That is the way I saw it.

"It is another challenge and it is exciting. I want to be pushed and they feel that Max is the guy now who can push me the hardest."

And Ricciardo says he has no concerns over a different mentality from Verstappen who had some flashpoints on track with Toro Rosso team-mate Carlos Sainz.

"I am not worried. I have had my fair share of team-mates in the past and I have had some pretty good rivalries with some. Jean-Eric (Vergne) was a guy who I had a pretty strong rivalry with. But then we still respected each other off the track, so we got through that pretty well.

"I am a pretty easy going guy. The business is on the track but off the track I just go about my thing. Obviously Max will feed into the team how he does – whichever way it is I don’t think it will affect me or the team in any way."

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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.