RICCIARDO’S REVELATIONS

12 months on Daniel Ricciardo gave insight on his decision to switch – Photo: LAT

In the secretive world of Formula 1 – especially when it comes to driver contract negotiations – it sometimes takes a while for the full background to a story to be revealed. It was one year ago just after the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend that Australia’s F1 ace Daniel Ricciardo stunned everybody including his Red Bull team by announcing that he would make a switch to Renault in 2019.

By DAN KNUTSON

One year later Ricciardo sat down with F1 news outlets including AUTO ACTION in the paddock of the Hungaroring and gave more insight as to why, how and when he made his decision to leave the team where he had won seven F1 races.

“It doesn’t feel like it was 12 months ago,” the Perth native said. “More like six, it’s gone quick. I remember coming into the weekend I was still a little bit oblivious as to what was going to happen, where I’d end up.

“I remember as the weekend progressed, I think Friday or Saturday, it was like some teams are really pushing now, they need to know answers, this driver needs to make a decision there – it all started to ramp up. It was like Sunday night, like ‘were gonna really need to decide what to do.’”

Ricciardo’s choice was down to Red Bull or Renault by the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. Had he been in talks with McLaren earlier?

“Yeah. I won’t lie, I definitely spoke to them for a bit,” he replied.

Ferrari?

“Nada! Nada. Niente!”

“At this point it was just Renault and Red Bull,” Ricciardo said. “They (Red Bull) wanted a longer-term deal; I wanted a shorter one because I had some reservations with how the Honda would be and all that.

“At times I was pushing for one year with Red Bull, but then I was like ‘one year doesn’t sound smart.’ It was going to be two or two, two here or two there. S***, you’re taking me back now! I haven’t really talked about it since then.”

By Sunday evening after the race in Hungary Ricciardo still had not made up his mind.

“I went out to dinner with some friends,” he recalled. “I was quite tired after the race, so I said ‘look I’ll have maybe one or two drinks with dinner and then I’ve got some things to sort out.’ But then a few more drinks and I was like ‘for tonight let’s relax and we’ll worry about tomorrow’. So we didn’t go crazy but I had a few drinks. I tried to take my mind off things Sunday night.”

Ricciardo tested with Red Bull at the Hungaroring on the Tuesday after the race. He then flew to the U.S. for a holiday on the Wednesday. He did a lot of thinking on the flight.

“So when I landed, I was alright… yellow and black!” he said, referring to Renault’s team colours.

How much did money play a factor in his decision? Renault is reportedly paying Ricciardo US$20 million a year.

“Everything!” a laughing Ricciardo joked.

“I can’t talk numbers or anything,” Ricciardo, getting serious, added, ‘but Red Bull did okay. That wasn’t a big difference in the end. It was not a deciding factor. I had gone back and forth how many factors there were, but it wasn’t that.”

So what was the deciding factor?

“There was not one bullet or anything like that.”

Did Ricciardo feel that maybe Red Bull was favouring his teammate Max Verstappen? Did that weigh heavily on his mind?

“Probably not as heavy as people think,” Ricciardo said. “Because I think it was talked about more than I saw. On track I can’t really tell you a time when he got a new floor and I didn’t. As far as parts went, the team was pretty good at development, so was always had equal number. It wasn’t really that.”

Ricciardo said that one of the many reasons he left Red Bull was because he had learned that his engineer Simon Rennie would not continue in the role in 2019.

“I had a really good relationship with him, and there were some unknowns, not knowing who I was going to have,” Ricciardo said. “I was certainly comfortable with him. If I’d knew he stayed, I don’t know if that would have been a deciding factor.

“But when you have the Honda concern, and a few others, that was another little thing. There were lots of these little things which added up. I don’t want to say concerns but unknowns. Concerns is probably a bit disrespectful.”

Red Bull is winning races in 2019 and Renault is not fast enough to finish on the podium. But, as Ricciardo recently told AUTO ACTION, he has no regrets about the decision he made 12 months ago.

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