By alley - Jul 3, 2015, 10:02 AM ET

F1: Ricciardo says Toro Rosso performance a "wake-up call" for Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo believes Toro Rosso's strong form over the first eight races of the 2015 Formula 1 season has acted as a "wake-up call" to his Red Bull team.

Toro Rosso's

Max Verstappen reckons his squad has produced the second-fastest chassis

this year, behind only Mercedes, and the Red Bull junior team has outperformed its parent outfit at several of the year's first eight grands prix.

Three-time GP winner Ricciardo, who expressed serious frustration with Red Bull's lack of competitiveness at the recent Canadian Grand Prix, said Toro Rosso's excellent form with the STR10 has highlighted the "inefficiencies" in the Red Bull RB11.

"That's been a bit of a wake-up call for our team, basically," Ricciardo told reporters at the British GP, when asked about Toro Rosso's levels of performance this year. "We know we're down on power [with the same Renault engine] so we can't obviously blame that.

"I think they've done a really good job. It looks like James Key has really established himself in the team now, after a few years. Kudos to them. Obviously, you look at our resources and everything and we should be quicker.

"For sure, we're not as quick as I think we should be for now, but you look at them and say, 'Right, they've done well with what they've got, so we should be able to do better, I guess, with what we've got.'

"In saying that, our team is aware that we've got some inefficiencies with some parts on the car – that's why we've got a new front wing on the car here, and we're trying to sort of sort out some of our weaknesses."

NO MORE FINGER POINTING

Ricciardo said progress in understanding and developing the RB11 means Red Bull can now focus on recovering lost ground to Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams, rather than worrying about threats from behind from Lotus, Force India and Toro Rosso.

"I don't want to get ahead of myself, but from this point on, we can start looking forward and keeping our eyes forward," Ricciardo added. "What's nice is that everybody's not really pointing the finger anymore, everyone's doing what they do best and focusing on improving themselves and their department.

"We've got some updates here, and I don't think they're going to find us a second, but they should find us some time and we should get better.

"I feel our slowest days are behind us now, and we can start to really turn it up."

Originally on AUTOSPORT.com