Ricciardo content with P5 at Monza, sets sights on Singapore podium - MotorSportsTalk

Daniel Ricciardo believes that fifth place was “realistically” the best result Red Bull could hope for in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix as it held onto second place in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship.

Ricciardo and Red Bull qualified sixth on Saturday at Monza, the high-speed nature of the circuit playing against the strengths of the RB12 car.

Ricciardo enjoyed a race-long battle with Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, making a late pass for fifth to follow the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers home.

“Yeah absolutely, realistically yes,” Ricciardo said when asked by NBCSN if P5 was the most he could have hoped for.

“We could have hoped for some incidents. But Mercedes was on another level and Ferrari had more all weekend.

“We didn’t get our hopes up. Fifth was good. We put a nice move on Valtteri. I told you before the wasp ambushed me that I’d get Valtteri and I did.”

Ricciardo put his advantage over Bottas down to better tire management, the Williams driving chewing through his tires during the middle stint.

“He was quick on same tire, I think they had more than us on raw pace. But our tire deg was a bit better,” Ricciardo said.

“We held on a few more laps. We stayed out longer every stint so we could put on the super-soft at the end. In the end that’s what we did. Thanks to the team for that strategy and pull off that move.”

Ricciardo has high hopes for the Singapore Grand Prix in two weeks’ time, with the tight and twisty nature of the track better suiting the Red Bull car.

“I don’t want to go in there saying I’m gonna win, but we have to aim for a podium,” Ricciardo said.

“It was a dud for Merc last year. Unfortunately I’m sure they’ll be back on form. But I like the track, I like the challenge. It’s hot, humid, physical and I look forward to going there and having some fun.”

In the second Red Bull, Max Verstappen dropped from P7 on the grid on the first lap before fighting his way back into the top 10, eventually finishing the race seventh.

“Yeah I dropped the clutch then got into anti-stall. We have to look into what happened,” Verstappen told NBCSN, reflecting on his start.

“From there, it was a little bit of a difficult situation after Lap 1. We had good pace, overtook some people and that was a positive.

“I hope we can challenge for victory [in Singapore]. This wasn’t too bad. Here it’s very power dependent.”

Red Bull’s points haul ensured it retained second place in the constructors’ championship heading to Singapore, leading Ferrari by 11 points.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”