Daniel Ricciardo claimed he would have "100 percent" sent his car down the inside of Sebastian Vettel if he had been in Valtteri Bottas' position in Bahrain on Sunday.

After closing by over a second per lap in the final stages, the Finn had one half-chance opportunity to attack the Ferrari into Turn 1 at the start of the final lap but thought better of it under braking and had to settle for second.

Some have since criticised Bottas with former Renault driver Jolyon Palmer claiming it backed up a belief the Mercedes driver was "soft", a word never spoken about Ricciardo behind the wheel of a racing car.

"I definitely would have sent it. 100 percent," the Australian told Sky F1. "I would have gone. There's a gap, you're finishing second anyway if you overshoot you're finishing second.

"Last lap, for the win, you have to go. You have to go. Take them both out [if it goes wrong]."

As it was his race in the desert was ended midway through Lap 2 after his car shutdown, meaning we still don't know after two races the true race pace of the RB14.

"How the race would have gone, I don't know. I don't want to say I would have won," Ricciardo said. "But if that was me on the last lap you can bet everything that I was going for it."

His problem and the performance of Pierre Gasly in the Honda-powered Toro Rosso has raised further speculation that Red Bull could drop Renault for the Japanese manufacturer next season.

“It’s helping their chances of looking attractive to Red Bull,” the 28-year-old commented this week.

“They obviously invested quite a bit in the last few years, and it didn’t work with McLaren but pretty cool that now Toro Rosso is doing well with it.”