Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo is hoping to challenge Mercedes for a proper title fight in 2015 Formula One season, after finishing third in the 2014 championship.
Ricciardo, who won three races in 2014 to be the only non-Mercedes driver to win, coming third behind Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, said that when one looks back it was pretty awesome how Red Bull won three when Mercedes were so dominant.
The Australian said that the target is to win more races and hopefully get more results in a title fight, which he insists would be a proper one, the BBC reported.
Ricciardo would be driving the new Red Bull on the first two days of the first pre-season test in Jerez, Spain from 1-4 February, in only his second season with the team and is hoping that the significant power advantage Mercedes' engine had in 2014 would mean they cannot make as much progress in 2015.
Ricciardo said that everyone is going to improve, that's a fact, but added that one would like to think that Mercedes' room for improvement is smaller than everyone else's. He is hoping that they don't have another 50 percent on top of what they have got and believes that Red Bull and Ferrari could make up that gap.
Ricciardo claimed that if Red Bull could halve the performance gap, it would be a good start and then they could apply pressure as the season goes on. He said that everyone is trying to improve, and he is aware of the need to keep improving.