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Daniel Ricciardo faces a major test as team leader at Red Bull this season, according to ex Formula One star David Coulthard.
The Scot said there was no doubt Ricciardo was the top driver at the outfit last year as he comprehensively out-drove four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.
But Coulthard warns there will now be more pressure on the young Australian with the challenge of talented young Russian Daniil Kvyat at the other side of the garage.
“It will be interesting to see how Daniel takes the pressure of being the team leader,” Coulthard said.
“He would be expected to beat Daniil Kvyat … but if he gets beaten, how is he going to handle that?
“Over a full grand prix season he will get beaten by his teammate at some point.”
Coulthard added that Ricciardo demonstrated areas of ability last year that genuinely surprised him.
“The thing that really stood out for me is his racing ability, the wheel-to-wheel instinctive feel,” Coulthard said.
“That was something about him that I hadn’t appreciated.
“I knew he had great speed at Toro Rosso and he was the right man to get promoted into the big team at Red Bull, but just the way he handled the adversity of a new regulation change, the difficulties of hardly doing any laps in pre-season testing, then the high of being on the podium in Melbourne before seeing it taken away.
“He really was the team leader last year and a four-time world champion in Sebastian Vettel didn’t really seem to have an answer for him.”
Coulthard also rates Ricciardo as one of the biggest personalities in the sport.
“Off-track, he’s one of the brightest stars in Formula One,” he said.
“Daniel has got the showman aspect, he’s got the big smile.
“Whether he wins many world championships remains to be seen, but he’ll definitely be one of the greats of the sport in terms of recognition because of just how much energy he brings.”
Meanwhile, Coulthard is uncertain who will set the pace at Albert Park during next week’s Australian Grand Prix.
He thinks testing times from Spain were not too relevant.
“I think it’s actually too close to call,” he said.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the final `spec’ of the cars the teams will run.
“We’ve come off the back of Barcelona, which is a true aero circuit and you need a lot of high speed lateral stability.
“Melbourne is a different race track that requires different balance from the cars.”
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