Horner: "We did everything we could to retain Ricciardo"

Christian Horner has insisted Red Bull Racing did everything they could in order to keep Daniel Ricciardo at the side for the 2019 season.

It was announced last season that Ricciardo would be switching forces to Renault F1 team for the 2019 season, after 12 years at Red Bull.

After weeks of negotiations, it seemed that the Aussie was set to sign a new contract at the Milton Keynes-based team. However, Ricciardo caught Horner and Red Bull boss Dr Helmut Marko by surprise and elected to join the French manufacturer.

"We looked at it and I think we did everything that we possibly could to retain him," the Red Bull team principal told Motorsport.com.

"He actually said this - he did the classic break-up (line) - it's 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 the time. Subsequently, he's seen what we were taking about start to come to fruition."

Red Bull acted swiftly and promoted Pierre Gasly from the junior side, Toro Rosso, and Horner has revealed there is always a Plan B option.

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