DANIEL Ricciardo insists he holds no grudge against Lewis Hamilton’s achievements despite the different fortunes the two have experienced in their title chase this season.

Hamilton was jubilant after he won the world title in Mexico last weekend, a stark difference to the scenes on Ricciardo’s side of the Red Bull garage after he suffered an eighth retirement of the season while running ahead of the Brit in second place.

The now five-time world champion had only one DNF all season in his Mercedes compared to his Australian counterpart’s eight (and counting) painting a harrowing picture of the reliabilities of the two cars.

Ricciardo would be well within his right to be sour of the two drivers’ circumstances in the most frustrating of seasons for him but he preferred to focus on how Hamilton managed to overcome Sebastian Vettel, who was in just as quick a car.

Max Verstappen this week insisted that he – as well as Ricciardo and Vettel – would win the world title in Hamilton’s car but Ricciardo admitted that while his competitive instincts would lead him to agree with his teammate, he can’t take anything away from the 33-year-old’s achievements.

"My competitive side will always believe I'm the best and in that car I could do the same things, 'yadda ya'," he said.

"But I definitely give him all the respect and it's definitely not a go at Lewis: I think he's been pretty awesome at being able to do what he's done continuously on track for the best part of a decade, but also done his own thing away from the track. For him to live the life he's living and still keep up such a performance, full credit to him.

"Also this year people realise that, OK, you can have a fast car but you've got to be able to perform week in and week out.

"Seb's for the most part had a fast car all year but when you're fighting for the title it's those little 'one-percenters' that Lewis's has got on top of more often than him and that's what really dictated the pace of this championship.

"I give Lewis full respect. I think the talent's always been there, the speed's always been there, everyone knows that but for him to maintain this level of intensity, this level of speed and commitment is pretty strong. I've certainly got no problem with applauding him on that."