Daniel Ricciardo is in no rush to commit to a new Red Bull deal and has said he will wait until next year’s Formula 1 pre-season testing before thinking about the decision, meanwhile talk of a move to Ferrari in 2019 will go away but the Australian is not sure how Sebastian Vettel will react to such a scenario.
During an interview, with Globo, Ricciardo was asked if he would be up for joining Vettel at Ferrari, “I’m not sure he’d take me. I don’t know if he has the power to tell the team who he wants, but I’m not going to think about that. All I have to do is keep driving at this high level and that’s what will determine my destiny.”
Ricciardo and Vettel were teammates at Red Bull in 2014. The German was on a high after scooping a quartet of consecutive Formula 1 world titles in the four previous seasons, while the Australian was promoted to the energy drinks’ senior team after his stint at Toro Rosso, replacing Mark Webber.
It was the first year of the new Formula 1 turbo engine era. Vettel struggled with the new technology, while Ricciardo relished it and won three times, finishing third in the championship behind the dominant Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Vettel’s best result was one second place and in the end finished fifth in the standings, 71 points adrift of Ricciardo. The German moved to Ferrari in 2015.
Amid the ongoing speculation, regarding a move to the Maranello outfit, all signs from the Red Bull camp is that they want to keep Ricciardo alongside Max Verstappen who has been signed up until the end of 2020. Team chief Christian Horner believes they have the best drivers on the grid and is keen to keep it that way.
A fact that clearly pleases Ricciardo, “That’s very nice of them, they want to keep me and Max long-term in the team.”
But added, “I’m not in a hurry. I have a lot of respect for Red Bull, but I still have some time to analyse everything, to understand how the market will move. I want to be in the best car, in the best place to be able to win. Maybe it’s Red Bull. As I said, however, I have time to see what it will be like, until the winter tests and the first races of 2018.”
Asked about the Ferrari dream, Ricciardo was brutally honest, “If I respond that it is not a dream, it will seem that I am not interested. But the word dream is a bit heavy. My dream is to win the World Championship and be in the best car so I don’t know what to answer.”
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