Ricciardo: I don’t ever feel like I’ve cheated myself

Asked by Racer if looking back at his tenure in blue he had any regrets, Ricciardo replied, “No, I wouldn’t say any regrets. Not at all actually. I guess as well I never really had many other options anyway, so it’s not like I could have signed with Mercedes two years ago and I didn’t want to or whatever. So no regrets. I’m happy."

“For sure I look at last year and 2015, there’s been some frustrating years for sure, but I’m always happy with the way I approach it. I don’t look back and say: Ah, if I would have worked harder then I wouldn’t be in this position and I would have made things better for myself."

“I don’t ever feel like I’ve cheated myself, if you know what I mean, and some of my best weekends have been when I’ve been more chilled about it and less intense. But I think I’ve found that balance, so no regrets.”

After a Red Bull bank-rolled half season with HRT in 2011 followed by two seasons with Toro Rosso, the big smiling Aussie was promoted to Red Bull alongside the team's superstar and four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

2014 proved to be a stellar season for Ricciardo, despite a heart-breaking start for him with the energy drinks outfit - he was DQ-ed after finishing second in his home race, the first as a fully fledged Red Bull driver.

But he had signalled his intent, by the end of the season he had bagged three victories and finished third in the championship, humbling Vettel by 71 points at the end of that season, upon which the German departed to Ferrari while Red Bull promoted Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat.

Ricciardo recalled, “I’d only been there a year with them, especially when they signed Kvyat, a young kid, I was like: All right, now there’s probably a bit more expectation on me to carry the team, at least for the first part of the season. So I did feel that a bit, but I don’t think it really changed my approach to
anything.

“I think what I was conscious of is I was aware that especially in testing they’re going to rely on my feedback, and I was conscious not to say sh!t for the sake of it. Not to sound smart and sound like a leader. I was thinking I’m better off if I don’t know, say: I’m honestly not sure, as opposed to acting like I know and leading the team in the wrong direction."

“I feel it’s quite important. I’m not going to name teammates and to be honest I probably couldn’t actually specifically name a teammate at the time but I’m sure some have said things at times because everyone is expecting them to say something."

"So they’re like, ‘Ahh yeah, this did that,’ and you’re better off just saying, ‘I didn’t feel it’ or ‘I don’t know’ and that’s a more mature response. It won’t potentially take the team in the wrong direction,” he added.

Ricciardo made 100 starts for Red Bull, winning seven times and finishing on the podium 29 times and he may feel a sense of deja vu with Max Verstappen emerging as the big cheese in the team which the Aussie once owned - an uncanny case of role reversal.

Now he heads to Renault for the forthcoming season and only time will tell if he can go one better than he did with his previous employees and have a serious crack at the title with the French team, starting at his home Australian Grand Prix next month.