Steiner clarifies: 'Not in talks with Ricciardo'

Guenther Steiner has made it clear that Ricciardo is not on Haas' radar at the moment. There are routine rumours that Ricciardo might make an appearance at the American race stable next year, but according to Steiner, nothing of those rumours are true.

As GPblog previously analysed, Haas are one of the few teams that actually have a place for Ricciardo next season. Ricciardo continues to stress his desire to return to Formula 1 next season, but seats are scarce.

The Australian has been linked with Haas more often than not. When the team was looking for a replacement for Mick Schumacher at the end of last season, the name of Ricciardo, who was without a contract at the time, regularly came up. But in the Netflix series Drive to Survive, Steiner then made it clear that Ricciardo was too expensive for the American racing stable.

To promote his new book, 'Surviving to Drive', Steiner sat with Sky Sports, where he was asked if there was any truth to the rumours that Haas and Ricciardo are in talks. "No," was Steiner's clear answer. "Not at the moment. Danny is with Red Bull. I don’t know for how long. I actually was with Danny on the plane to Australia, so we had a little bit of a chat, but not about the contract. Danny wanted to take a year out and then see what he wants to do next. I think when he’s ready, he will phone people up and say, ‘I’m ready again’."