It’s still sinking in that Daniel Ricciardo won’t be racing for Red Bull next year, instead competing with Renault.
A lot of people were confused by the move, why would Ricciardo, a race winner in four of thee last five seasons, move to a midfield team?
The Australian suffered eight DNFs last season with Red Bull, which could be a reason to his frustrations with the team.
He told Racer: “What I was going back and forth with was, originally [Red Bull] wanted to do a two-year deal, and because I’d already questioned if I wanted to do another year there, doing two years… I was a bit concerned with me personally; with my motivation to still be there.
“I was just thinking if Honda doesn’t work, next year’s a year of frustration, then am I really going to want to do another year on top of that, or am I just going to get a bit over it?
“So initially the two-year thing was something that concerned me, so then it was like: OK, let’s try and push for a one year and if the Honda works, great, we’ll extend it and whatever. Easy.
“But then one year felt risky. It felt like I wasn’t really achieving anything by signing a one-year. I don’t know, it just didn’t really add up. So what I thought I wanted, I didn’t really want in the end. So there wasn’t really anything for me.
“The two-year, for me, I didn’t really feel I wanted, and a one-year was like it puts me in this position again in 12 months time, and I don’t really want to be back in this position to be honest, because it’s starting to become a bit wearing.”
Do you think Ricciardo made the right call to join Renault? Let us know in the comments!