Ricciardo hopeful upgrades will transform Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo is hopeful Red Bull’s planned major chassis upgrade will bring the squad to within half a second of Mercedes and Ferrari.

The Milton Keynes squad is set to deploy a revamped chassis at next month’s Spanish Grand Prix having struggled to create the downforce levels seen by the championship’s front runners.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix, the Australian is confident Red Bull’s first major update for the RB13 will provide a significant boost to his campaign.

The four-time grand prix winner is lying sixth in the standings with a fourth at the Chinese Grand Prix his best result of the season to date.

“I hope for a bit of a bullet, something fast,” said Ricciardo of the planned updates.

“We want to be in a three-way fight with Ferrari and Mercedes, that is what I would hope for, something that puts us in that fight.

“Looking here at qualifying last year, we were a second-and-a-half off pole and went to Barcelona and were half a second off, and then at Monaco we were quick.

“So it’s a time of the year we should see some updates take place. We need a bit of everything now and we’ve talked about downforce, feeling a bit in the rear.

“I am confident it will be better than what we have got now.

“That is all we can ask for – an improvement. Like last year we made that step and then could keep chipping away at it.

“It is important to make the first step, so let’s hope we can do that in Barcelona. If we can get within half a second, that will be good.”

Ricciardo will begin his Russian Grand Prix program today when opening practice begins today at 1800 AEST.