Will Ricciardo even matter?

           

           As we look ahead to the 2014 Formula 1 season, I began to think about 4-time consecutive world Champion Vettel’s teammate. Then, I asked myself, does it even matter who partners him at Red Bull? After doing some research, it really doesn’t. “Yeah Vettel can win Driver’s Titles for the team, but what the team really cares about is the Constructor’s Championship” you might say, but lets just crunch some simple numbers real quick.

Sebastian Vettel: 327 points

Mercedes AMG Petronas: 348 points

So basically, as long as Ricciardo has 22 points by Austin next year, Red Bull will be fine. That’s such a small ratio its ridiculous, That would mean the Riccardo only needs to maintain a steady 6.7% of Vettel’s points to lead Red Bull to a fifth Constructors Title. That means for every four races Vettel wins, Riccardo could finish 6^th once, retire in the other 3 races and still be 1.4% above  quota. As bad as some drivers on the field may seem, none of them are that bad where they can’t score 6% of their teammate’s points.

Hence, it doesn’t really matter… Except for the fact that it will hopefully provide competition and friction at the top of the field, make Vettel prove to the world that it his championships aren’t just down to the car and having a teammate who’s nearly 20 years older than him, hopefully split up Vettel’s race wins so that the F1 season results doesn’t mirror that of Fomula Ford this year (Google it, it’s absolutely insane), and finally we might actually see both Red Bulls finish races consistently (crazy right?).