Ricciardo hopes to maximise from early next season

Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and Red Bull Racing during press conference for the Abu Dhabi

Even as Red Bull pushed ahead with their design of RB14 to avoid a slow start next season, there are little issues with cold vibes between drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen as both hunted for championship points, the Hungarian Grand prix being a case in point.
At a press conference during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Ricciardo sheepishly admitted the underlying situation and said: "I hope to keep him on my birthday list. We said at the start of this year it would be a good problem to have - if both of us are fighting at the front and having some battles. If it's ultimately deciding a world title we would happily run with that challenge. This year we again had high hopes for that. I believe next year we will close the gap. Is it enough to fight for a title? I think we can certainly get close but we'll see. I don't want to predict too early. I'm sure we've learned a lot this year and I believe we're going to put in the right work in the winter to start strong. And then that'll be exciting."
Talking about his partner, Ricciardo said: "Max improved this year from last year. I won't say he came a long way because he was always there but he certainly improved and I think next year it's going to be a lot of fun, so looking forward to that. And hopefully we can add a world title to the eight that we have."
Red Bull after a slow start to the season turned the tables in last few races. And Ricciardo said there's work to be done.
"There have been some great races. Obviously I would love all 20 to be great and not all 20 have been. I will assess the year once it's all settled and then just try to understand what I could have improved. I'm sure there's on-track stuff but also off track. I give every year a good crack, but give next year a proper crack. I mean between us all we've got eight world titles, so it's pretty good. We want nine. I've been pretty pleased with the year. I've still got some improvements to make and I'm looking forward to extracting a bit more from myself," he added.
And before the grind of the next season with his partner, Ricciardo has to tackle the ice cool man from Ferrari Kimi Raikkonen, who is just seven points behind him at fifth spot.