Daniel Ricciardo has said that the heat of the Singapore Grand Prix race weekend could open up opportunities for Red Bull and rivals Ferrari to experiment with tyre strategies.
The two teams are currently locked in a close battle for second place in the constructors' championship, with Ricciardo's Red Bull team just edging it at the moment.
But the Australian thinks that the tough conditions in Singapore could mix things up a little for both teams.
"I think it can maybe decide a few things, whether it’s on Sunday I’m not sure, obviously we’ve got freedom to use any of those tyres during practice," he said. "Maybe us or Ferrari for example, will change our practice runs now and use a different compound to try and have something similar for the race – but yeah, it can, here because it’s so hot, the tyres do normally get a hard time and it’s low speed corners, a lot of traction and the rears can get a hard time for sure so I think if you’ve got too many softer compounds, you might run into a bit of trouble in the race but we’ll see."
Ricciardo also said that the changed tyre rules for 2016, which allow teams to use three compounds each weekend now, although they must choose which many weeks in advance, has added another element to the competition.
"It’s been quite exciting this year, being able to use three compounds over a weekend and having been forced to choose them months in advance," he said. "Sure, if we could have picked the tyres this week, we all probably would have done something different."
"It’s a bit more of a lottery, makes it exciting and makes our practice runs perhaps a little bit more calculated."
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