Ricciardo: Red Bull aim to make Verstappen the youngest F1 champion

Former Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo has revealed the reason he left the side at the end of the 2018 season was because he no longer felt like the 'number one' driver at the Milton Keynes side.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner recently said that Ricciardo was "running from a fight" with Max Verstappen, with the Aussie making a switch to Renault ahead of the upcoming F1 season.

However, Ricciardo has confirmed his decision was more to do with Red Bull itself rather than his former team-mate.

"I have nothing against Max," Ricciardo said to La Gazzetta dello Sport. "We always have got along well and that was even the case after the incident in Baku (colliding with each other in 2018).

"I never thought that I couldn't work with him or that the team would give him a better car. But I think that in the event of a fight for the title, the team would be on Max's side. They want to make him the youngest world champion in history."

Verstappen's second half to the 2018 season has made him a potentially seriously strong contender for the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel ahead of the 2019 season.

Dr. Helmut Marko has recently revealed he thinks the 21-year-old will claim the drivers' title this season, as Red Bull prepare for a new chapter, with its power being supplied by Honda, rather than Renault.