MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo deserves better car – Rosberg

The Formula 1 world champion who walked away from his Mercedes drive says Daniel Ricciardo needs to be “in a race-winning car and fighting for championships”.

Nico Rosberg, who quit F1 within days of winning the world title in 2016, says Ricciardo – turning 30 on Monday – has been “really impressive and is doing an awesome job” in his first season with the Renault factory team.

Ricciardo departed Red Bull Racing at the end of last season after five years in which he won seven grands prix, joining Renault when neither of the top two teams – Mercedes and Ferrari – offered him a seat.

Mercedes opted to keep Valtteri Bottas as five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton’s teammate, while Ferrari had committed itself to Charles Leclerc as four-time champion Sebastian Vettel’s teammate before he’d even completed a season in F1.

While Renault was fourth in last year’s constructors’ championship, it is fifth this season – behind Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull Racing (now powered by Honda, having opted not to continue as an engine customer of Renault) and a rejuvenated McLaren, which is using Renault power units.

Carsales.com.au global ambassador Ricciardo’s raw results with Renault have not looked stunning, apart from qualifying fourth in Canada, but Rosberg has been dazzled by the Australian’s form since his rocky start at his home GP in Melbourne and reversing into Daniel Kyvat’s Toro Rosso after an ‘off’ in Azerbaijan.

At this stage last year Ricciardo had 96 points and had won in Shanghai and Monaco, while this season he has only has the same 16 points as Renault teammate Nico Hulkenberg.

However, Ricciardo was stripped of six points in France last Sunday after he was given two five-second penalties for his driving against Lando Norris and Kimi Raikkonen on the final lap – decisions Ricciardo felt were “too harsh”.

In any case, the Honey Badger has outqualified Hulkenberg 7-1 so far, with another round of the 21-race championship in Austria this weekend.

Rosberg says that Ricciardo is “dominating” Hulkenberg. Without the luxury of a Mercedes or Ferrari drive, he can’t do more than that.

“I rate Nico Hulkenberg quite highly, he’s a huge talent – we know that from all the categories leading up to F1 where he won everything,” Rosberg told Britain’s Sky Sports.

“Suddenly now Daniel is dominating him for the last four or five races.

“I think that’s really impressive and I think Daniel is doing an awesome job.

“Once again he’s showing that he deserves to be in a race-winning car and fighting for championships.”

Ricciardo’s contract with Renault is until the end of next season, when Vettel’s Ferrari deal also expires, with new regulations due for F1 cars in 2021.

Hamilton perhaps will have overtaken Michael Schumacher’s record 91 GP wins by then, but he may want to go on to beat his seven world titles.

However, Vettel is increasingly dissatisfied with F1 and could retire, while question marks hang over whether Bottas and Leclerc are worthy of seats in the top two teams.

Ricciardo is unlikely to reunite with Red Bull, which is committed to Max Verstappen as its No.1 driver, but – for what it’s worth – ‘Our Dan’ has Rosberg’s vote for a better seat than what he’s got.

Mercedes already has Esteban Ocon, dislodged from F1 this season (mainly because of Ricciardo joining Renault), on its books if it decides to drop Bottas, who started brilliantly in Melbourne in March but now trails Hamilton by 36 points – 10 more than the maximum score for a driver from any race.

Which makes Ricciardo’s logical destination – as long argued here – Ferrari.

Now, if you have a spare hour and a half, here’s a fantastic chat between Rosberg and Ricciardo.

Amid the criticism of F1’s processional ‘racing’, with Mercedes having won all eight GPs this year and been first and second in six of them, the head of the Formula E electric open-wheeler series, Spaniard Alejandro Agag, says F1 teams should be excluded from any part in rule-making.

Nearing the end of its fifth season, FE racing has become far more exciting than F1 – except that it’s like a silent movie.

A more pertinent observation on the state of F1 has come from the BBC’s chief F1 writer, Andrew Benson.

“The single biggest issue in F1 at the moment is that it is a two-tier championship in which only three teams can have a hope of winning, and one of those three – Mercedes – is doing a better job than the other two, Ferrari and Red Bull,” Benson wrote this week.

“One can also point the finger at the expensive and complex hybrid engines for exacerbating the situation. But Ferrari’s is now at least as good as Mercedes’, so it’s hard to see that as the main issue.”

Team chiefs are to meet the governing Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and tyre supplier Pirelli in Austria today to discuss switching back to 2018 rubber to improve the ‘show’.

Seven of the 10 teams would need to agree for there to be a mid-season switch, but Mercedes and McLaren won’t and Renault and Sauber Alfa Romeo are reported to have reservations.

The Australian GT Championship is going back to Bathurst.

Two one-hour sprint races at Mt Panorama will be part of the 2020 championship next Easter on the same weekend as the Bathurst Six-Hour production car race.

‘The Mountain’ last hosted an Australian GT round in 2013, when the first hour of the Bathurst 12-Hour counted towards the championship.

“We want all our racing at the best and most exciting circuits in the country and Bathurst ticks all of the boxes in spades,” said Australian GT category rights holder Jim Manolios.

“This is an exciting announcement that will pave the way for a new-look championship next year.”

The GTs will be supplemented next Easter by the NSW Production Sports category that has regularly been on the Easter program.

The next round of this year’s Australian GT Championship is an endurance round at The Bend in South Australia on July 12-14.