Despite having just two titles to Sebastian Vettel’s four or Lewis Hamilton’s three, Fernando Alonso is considered by many to be the best driver on the current F1 grid. The Spaniard though doesn’t think he is, nor does he think his fellow world champions are.
Speaking on a BBC F1 podcast, Alonso revealed that he thinks Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo is the best F1 has to offer right now.
“I would say Ricciardo right now because in the way he approaches racing, he’s always very committed to everything he does,” said the McLaren driver when asked who he thought was the top driver in F1 at the moment.
“On the track you cannot see any mistakes when you are together with him. In the overtaking manoeuvres probably he is the best out there. When he commits to one movement, 99 per cent he will achieve the result that he wanted.”
Alonso also went on to talk about Ricciardo’s debut season with Red Bull Racing, where he beat his four-time world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel on a regular basis.
“Obviously in 2014 together with Vettel, it was an amazing performance that he showed and he was way ahead of Vettel in every single point – in the driving, in the approach, in the starts, in the pitstops, in the overtaking. He was beating Vettel so easily, so I have to say that he would be right now my choice.”
Ricciardo was understandably flattered by the comments and couldn’t deny how awesome it was to be regarded so highly by one of F1’s ‘big dogs.’
“I’m not going to lie, you can’t ignore a comment like that,” responded Ricciardo. “You can’t just say, ‘oh yeah, whatever’. Before I got to the sport he was already a double world champion and a guy when I got to the sport I was like, ‘this is one of the big dogs’. In a way I guess someone you look up too because you look up to what they’ve achieved and you want to be like them and have that success.”