Daniel Ricciardo Takes a Cheeky Dig at Red Bull

Renault driver, Daniel Ricciardo does not regret his decision to leave Red Bull in favour of his current team. In fact, he believes that it was far more risky for him to stay with the Austrian outfit in 2019. Even more so now, as the team enters into a partnership with Honda.

Ricciardo was blocked from getting his first taste of the Renault at the Abu Dhabi test by Red Bull. But now, he finally got his hands on the 2019 Renault challenger for the first time. The French team completed a successful shakedown run of the R.S. 19 at the Circuit de Catalunya. Ricciardo was delighted after his demo run in Barcelona, especially with testing set to get under way next week.

The Australian’s fortunes will be closely scrutinised in 2019 after having swapped Red Bull for Renault. It did seem odd to leave a team with championship designs this year for a team that doesn’t expect to be a contender until 2021.

Although Red Bull have sung praises to the high heavens about their expectations of Honda, they are not fooling Ricciardo.

Speaking to Motorsport-Total, he said, “The more I think about it, the less the risk seems [when compared to] Red Bull. At Red Bull you always measure yourself against the successes that have been achieved in the past. The danger is that you will be disappointed.”

He continued, “My impression is that the risk of failing [at Red Bull] was greater than switching here and being at risk of not winning. Renault is not there yet in terms of where it wants to go. The team has been catching up [since 2014] and mistakes are likely to continue, but my impression is that these mistakes are being phased out, and my personal feeling tells me: Honda has more problems to solve.”