Daniel Ricciardo is aiming to stay within touching distance of Mercedes and Ferrari this weekend at Baku, despite suggestions from Red Bull's motorsports advisor that the circuit's 2km main straight might result in their struggling to match the engine performance of their rivals.
Coming into the Grand Prix of Europe, Dr Helmet Marko has predicted that Red Bull might be as much as 1.2s off the pace of the team's main competition through this part of the circuit.
“I hope he’s wrong, that sounds like a lot," said a worried Ricciardo. "Let’s see. I hope we don’t lose that much.
"If we lose around that, let’s say we lose a second we can make up a bit of time in the corners. On Mercedes, probably not that much, they’ve got a good car as well but also Ferrari it’s probably minimal.
"On somebody like Williams we expect them to gain a bit on us down the straight but then in the corners I’m hoping our advantage takes over. 1.2 is big, I hope Helmet is wrong."
Elsewhere the circuit is looking distinctly more promising for Ricciardo and his team mate Max Verstappen.
"There’s a lot of interesting parts, obviously everyone is talking about Turns eight, nine and 10, that looks fun. It looks pretty tight but I think obviously we are going to get pretty close to the wall there and push it to the limit.
"I think already at turns five and six that is quite technical. I think there will be two lines, whether you push on the entry of five and gain on that and lose a little bit out of six because the straight is not that long before Turn seven, so that could be interesting.
"I think Turn 16 is going to very crucial I think because then we’ve got full throttle for a long time. It will be important to get through there clean, any slide on the exit is going to kill your speed for the straight.
“[Turn 19] should be flat. I just spoke to my engineer now, he said don’t try and take it flat on the install lap but yeah I think by the time we get going and get some grip on the track it will be flat and it’s still before the DRS. If it was after the DRS then that would be a very interesting corner.”
And Ricciardo was looking forward to the challenging pit entry, which has attracted a degree of criticism from some parts for being potentially too dangerous.
"I actually think it’s going to be quite cool because pit entry is always a part you can gain a little bit of time. This one in particular I think if a driver gets it right and a driver doesn’t quite go in there as committed or makes a mistake, there’s easily half a second if not a second on that pit entry, between a good one and a bad one.
"You either crash or you lose a lot of time. It could be cool if you are battling someone in the race and you are trying an undercut or an overcut maybe what you do on the pit entry maybe dictate who wins that position.
"I like it actually, it looks good."
Chris Medland’s 2016 Grand Prix of Europe preview
Breakfast with ... David Hobbs
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