Daniel Ricciardo revels in Monte Carlo heroics but still unconvinced about Red Bull’s world championship credentials

This year's title race already looks like a three-way scrap

The Aussie took an impromptu dip to celebrates his Grand Prix win (Getty )

Monaco GP victor Daniel Ricciardo says that he is not yet sure whether Red Bull are now a contender for the world championship, even though he, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have each won two races so far this season.

“I think it’s a natural question after a victory,” Ricciardo admitted. “I think I got asked after China if it means we’re in the title hunt. I think Lewis still has a pretty good buffer on me” – the Briton has 110 points to his 72, with Vettel between them on 96 – “so we’re still on the outside of that.

“It’s not impossible but not really at the forefront of my mind yet. But, even if it was, I’m not going to change obviously the way that I’m driving or trying to attack. So, yeah, Montreal will be interesting. We’ll try to get a few more podiums but yeah, we’ve got to probably prove on at least one other circuit before the summer break that we can win again. And then maybe we’re a nice little outside chance.”

Hamilton, however, has no doubts.

Lewis Hamilton is convinced he is in a three-way fight (Getty)

“As far as I am concerned I believe it is already a three-way fight,” he said after finishing third in a damage-limiting race on Sunday.

“Definitely. Ferrari are still the strongest, and their car was quick here and seems to have worked quite well so far in the season, though they’ve dropped the ball a few times and we’ve capitalised on that. But I still think they are doing the best job.

“Red Bull are due a Renault engine upgrade in the next race, in Canada, so it’ll be interesting to see what that brings Sunday’s race was not the most exciting, but I hope that the fans see this three-way battle as a great race.

“I love it! It’s the greatest challenge that we have ever had. I’m loving that, and going super-deep into all the technical knowledge. I’m really enjoying that.”

But he made no secret that he did not enjoy cruising round for 78 laps as everyone tried to conserve their tyres in what he described as the longest race he’d ever been in.

“My problem is that I am open and honest,” he began. “I am really happy to come third, because I don’t think we had the third fastest car here. I nearly got P2 in qualifying, so we are in a good place, especially if you look how we were here last year.

“But Monaco gets the biggest build-up as the most super race, and often the race itself isn’t as exciting as the whole spectacle that is qualifying. That is always epic here.

“I don’t know… Maybe F1 needs to apply a rule or something, that you cannot have just one-stop races here, because more than one stop would make things ore exciting. From the racing drivers’ point of view, we just weren’t pushing here. It was insane how little I was pushing. I can remember seeing my front tyres graining, and they were still doing that even when I wasn’t pushing.

“When I was 10s behind Seb at one stage I was still pushing, I still believed I might win or make something happen, that I might come up with something. Instead, my engineers told me I had to back off.

“When I passed Esteban Ocon at one stage after my pit stop, I did it coming out of the tunnel and going down into the chicane. He didn’t try to resist too much, but it was the most exciting part of my race, overtaking somebody. Even if only for a second…”

He said he would like to see the organisers make the track longer, perhaps to incorporate somewhere better to try and overtake.

“I mean, you look at NASCAR racing in America, they have hundreds of yellow flags to make things more exciting. They throw one every time they see a tear-off visor on the track – and they don’t even have tear-offs there!”

Stressing how much he had wanted to win again here, he added: “I know that I can’t win them all, and I know that I only lost three points here. But did I want to win the Monaco GP? Hell, yeah! Do I want to win the world championship? Hell, yeah!

“I don’t know how many years I have left in racing, but this is another race that I can’t do again.”

If Ferrari and Red Bull stay as strong as they are, Hamilton and Mercedes will have to fight even harder. Which is just what a dyed-in-the-wool racer seems to want most as he aims for a fifth title.