Red Bull can be 'very competitive' at Spa - Ricciardo

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Daniel Ricciardo believes Red Bull can be "very competitive" at the Belgian Grand Prix as long as it gets its set-up right.

Red Bull managed to get both cars ahead of Nico Rosberg in the German Grand Prix as the Mercedes driver was unable to recover from a poor start, with Ricciardo and team-mate Max Verstappen emerging as the closest challengers in recent races.

Mercedes confirms Hamilton engine penalty at Spa

Lewis Hamilton will take a grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, and Ricciardo is confident Red Bull will have the pace to take advantage to put pressure on Rosberg again.

"The race pace in Hockenheim was good," Ricciardo said. "Budapest we were there a bit, and then they sort of turned it up. But Hockenheim, Lewis was still controlling it, but I don’t think that they were that much quicker. So I don’t think Hockenheim suits us anymore than this track.

"If we can just keep nailing the set-up and get the car in the window where it works well, and maybe if there is just one Mercedes in front, if we can put a bit of pressure on him, and jump him at the start or something, then I really think we can do something about it. So let’s see.

"I don’t want to forget Ferrari. They are going to still be there. We’ve got the upper hand on them in the last few races, but there will still be some races where they turn it on as well. It is going to be an interesting weekend, but I do think if I am happy with the car then we will be very competitive."

And Ricciardo believes Monza is the only circuit of the coming races where Ferrari could have the upper hand against Red Bull in the fight for second in the constructors' standings.

"This one I think we will be quite close with them. Monza they should be the favourite to beat us. If we could beat them at Monza for example then that would be quite a good one for us. Then coming to Singapore, Suzuka, on paper then those should favour us more. But we are talking about it but I am not thinking about it too much, I am not looking that far ahead.

"We will take races as they come, and if we get the most out of our car we can get ahead of them. But I am not going to count them out, Seb [Vettel] as well. Seb can turn it on pretty well, and Kimi [Raikkonen] on his day as well. We are prepared to hopefully be in a fight with Mercedes, but also prepared that Ferrari might join in on the action as well."

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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.