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Red Bull did all they could to keep Ricciardo for 2019

Red Bull did all they could to keep Ricciardo for 2019

29-12-2018 11:10
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Jake Williams-Smith

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says that Red Bull tried everything they could to keep Daniel Ricciardo at the team for next season. The Australian surprised the F1 world by announcing he would be jumping to Renault for 2019.

The immensely popular Aussie will be in yellow for next season rather than the blue, yellow and red of the energy drinks team, but it is an outcome that took Horner and head of driver development for the team Dr Helmut Marko by surprise.

"We looked at it and I think we did everything that we possibly could to retain him," Horner told Autosport.

"He actually said this - he did the classic break-up - it not you, it's me! And I think he just genuinely wanted to take on a new challenge.

"I think he was also probably concerned about his value with the evolution of Max (Verstappen) and was probably uncertain about Honda at that time.

"Subsequently he's seen what we were talking about starting to come to fruition.

"You always have a Plan B. I think once we understood that he was serious, that that was his mindset, it was a very easy decision to come to regarding Pierre Gasly."

Horner also shut down claims that Red Bull was now favouring Max Verstappen as their number one driver before the team has even begun testing.

"The number one driver in this team is the driver who is ahead on the track. That's the simple rule.

"And there is zero favouritism in the way that we operate the team, from one driver to the other. Daniel will tell you that very openly.

"Mexico was the first time that Daniel outqualified Max since Monaco. Max's qualifying performances have been huge, and that was probably part of Daniel's decision taking for the future."