Ricciardo open to team order talks

Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t ruled out asking Red Bull Racing to adopt team orders to help boost his chances of winning the Formula One world championship.

But it’ll only happen if results keep falling his way after this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

Back-to-back victories in Hungary and Belgium have moved the Australian to within 64 points of runaway leader Nico Rosberg on the overall standings, and just 35 points adrift of fellow Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton.

With seven races remaining and double points on offer at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Ricciardo believes he can still win the 2014 title.

“But this would take more than just winning the next seven races – which would take quite a lot of luck as well,” he told Formula1.com.

“There is a lot of talk about this topic right now, but actually I am not really thinking about any scenario at the moment.”

Given he is the only driver other than Rosberg and Hamilton with a realistic shot at the championship, Ricciardo is open to approach Red Bull about using defending champion and teammate Sebastian Vettel to aid his challenge down the track.

“It is something which could potentially be discussed at a later date, but there is no talk or signs of team orders – it’s too early for that,” he said.

“If I am still in this position with three or four races to go then it may come up.

“I haven’t thought about the championship, so I haven’t really run through scenarios.

“I will get through this weekend, so if we have a bit of damage limitation and if we are still in the hunt, maybe we will look at some discussions.”

Ricciardo admitted he’d benefited from the internal feud between Rosberg and Hamilton, but was not going to rely on the pair tripping up to get results.

“If both of them crash into each other at every race, that would impact me a lot and probably hand me the championship on a platter, but in terms of coming into the race weekend I am not thinking about what they could potentially do, because that is out of my control,” he said.

“The best thing for me is to get my head down and do my job.”

Qualifying for Sunday’s race at Monza begins at 10pm (AEST) on Saturday.

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