After narrowly missing out on victory in the Singapore Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo says he’s determined to do what he can to score a win for the team in the six remaining races of the 2016 season.

“This is not the first time this season that victory has narrowly got away from us,” Ricciardo told French publication Auto Hebdo this week. “We’ve been close on several occasions.

“I think we ran Mercedes close last weekend.

“I pushed and I knew I would be close to him during the final laps,” he continued. “We tried a strategic move at the end and missed it by a breath, but it was fun.”

Ricciardo admitted that street circuits like Singapore and Monaco – where a mistake by the Red Bull team cost him a near-certain victory – had the team’s best chance of snatching victory away from the dominant Mercedes squad this year, but that there was no question of him winding down and giving up of winning in the final races of the season.

“I’m all about 2016. I want a victory by the end of the season,” he said. “In the dry, it [Singapore] was probably our last chance, but if the rain comes to our assistance then we will have other opportunities [to take a win.]”

In a season that has seen a number of major rules changes tried out and then reversed, Ricciardo said that he was wary about Formula One making radical changes and that in his view “balanced and gradual change” would be preferable, suggesting that “small improvements can make it better.”

He predicted that the new 2017-specification cars would be “faster and look more aggressive,” but conceded that he still wasn’t sure how the changes would affect the racing next season.

“It’s impossible to make everyone happy,” he added, suggesting that too many people were criticising the sport without good reason and that despite the championship domination by Mercedes and its two drivers, “the races have been no less interesting.”