Kimi Raikkonen may be the blockbuster name linked to Red Bull for 2014, but Sky F1's Mark Hughes explains how the developing duel for supremacy at Toro Rosso could yet take on major significance
Wednesday 12 June 2013 10:34, UK
With the general assumption of Mark Webber leaving Red Bull next year not being seriously challenged either by the team or the driver, the performance of the two drivers in the group's junior team - Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo - has assumed a much more highly charged significance.
In every dry session Ricciardo has been faster. Rain did feature during Malaysian qualifying too, but only in Q3. Neither Toro Rosso had made it through to Q3 and in the dry Vergne failed to graduate from Q1. There is a very definite pattern there and it would seem that part of Vergne's current momentum is based very much on rain effecting qualifying in each of the last two events. Perhaps he will take confidence from this run of form and carry it into dry qualifying in races to come. But until then, Ricciardo's traits have him looking the more robust performer. The swingometer between them could decide who is in what might again be F1's fastest car next year. These mid-season races could therefore come to define their respective F1 careers. MH
