Ricciardo won't give up on world title

Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and Infiniti Red Bull Racing. (AFP/Samuel Kubani)

SINGAPORE: Australian Daniel Ricciardo believes he still has a chance to win this year's Formula One drivers world title, but admits he will have to attack hard in every one of the last six races.

The 25-year-old Red Bull driver said it is still "game on" to grab glory at the end of his first season with the champions team.

"As far as I'm concerned, it is game on, but my approach or mentality won't change and hasn't really changed since the start of the year," he told reporters ahead of this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

"If we can take the win, we take it, and if it brings me closer to the leader then obviously that's a good thing. The approach from now I think is just to attack and get as much as we can and that won't change. I think that's what we're going to need to do to get close to the Mercedes."

He added that he hopes to challenge Mercedes for victory in Singapore on pure pace, but says he expects to be in comfortably the second fastest team on Friday morning when practice gets under way.

"I guess I'm expecting a podium. I think we've got to aim for that really, especially if we want to stay in the title hunt," he said.

"If I'm to make a prediction I think we'll be the second-best team out of the box tomorrow, the question is how close we can get to Mercedes. I definitely think we're going to be closer than Monza. This is obviously a track which should help us out a bit more.

"If we can be within a couple of tenths then that would be a good result and that will mean we can race with them on Sunday. Then I expect to be a couple of tenths in front of the next best, but that's my prediction. So all going well we should be on the podium."

Back-to-back victories in Hungary and Belgium moved Ricciardo into title contention as Mercedes hit trouble, but Lewis Hamilton's victory at Monza ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg has left Ricciardo 72 points adrift.

He will also be buoyed by Red Bull's run of three straight Singapore wins in recent years thanks to the domination of defending four-time champion Sebastian Vettel.