Daniel Ricciardo’s old F1 teammate Jean-Eric Vergne voices frustrations

JEAN-ERIC Vergne outscored Daniel Ricciardo when they were Toro Rosso teammates. Now the frustrated Frenchman could be without an F1 drive.

Toro Rosso's Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo (L) and French driver Jean-Eric Vergne (R) pose for a photograph beside the newly unveiled Toro Rosso STR7 Formula 1 car on February 6, 2012, during a training session at the Jerez race track. AFP PHOTO / CRISTINA QUICLER

JEAN-ERIC Vergne outscored Daniel Ricciardo over an entire season when they were Toro Rosso teammates.

Now the frustrated Frenchman could be without an F1 drive.

Vergne, 24, loses his Toro Rosso seat to 16-year-old prodigy Max Verstappen next year, and now needs another team to pick him up to keep his F1 career alive.

Vergne has finished no higher than eighth in 13 races this season, but says teams should be looking at Ricciardo’s incredible rise as evidence of what the Frenchman could be capable of.

“Doing three years at Toro Rosso makes me very strong,” Vergne said.

“Daniel in a way is a good help for me because some teams expect world champion drivers, but maybe (the future) is not in world champion drivers, but in younger drivers who are really hungry and motivated, and that’s what I am.

“When you look at my results compared to Daniel all of our career, I have the potential to be what he is.”

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“What’s so damn funny?”

Vergne said he is open to the idea of opportunities outside of F1, but his focus was firmly on doing enough in the remaining races this season to increase his chances of being recruited by an F1 team.

“There are so many drivers who wanted to focus on F1 and got nowhere,” Vergne said.

“So I am not stupid — I have my eyes open, I would say. I would really love to race. It depends on the chance I will get to drive in a race, but at the moment my focus is on getting a race seat.”

Jean-Eric Vergne could be without an F1 seat next season.

HAMILTON AND ROSBERG LIKE ‘ENEMIES’

MEANWHILE, Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have been described as “enemies” by their own team boss Toto Wolff.

The pair have been embroiled in F1’s biggest inter-team feud since Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost 25 years ago, as they battle for the world title.

The pair had been close friends since racing karts as teenagers, but the relationship has soured dramatically.

“It has changed from, let’s say, an almost amicable relationship at the beginning of the season to a very intense moment, where it was almost like realising these two are enemies competing for the world title,” Wolff said.

“It’s also a learning process. These boys have been calibrated their whole life that their main priority is to win the drivers’ championship in F1.

“And here they go — they are in the same car, competing against each other for that trophy and one is going to win and one is going to fail.

“This is a new experience for them — a difficult experience maybe.”

The F1 season continues this weekend with the Singapore Grand Prix.

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton used to be mates.