Daniel Ricciardo is unbothered by claims he should have stayed at Red Bull, including a recent one by former boss Christian Horner.
Back in 2018, the Australian surprised the Formula 1 paddock by agreeing on a move to Renault from the Milton Keynes-based outfit, where he had been since 2014.
And commenting on Ricciardo’s exit ahead of the recent race in Melbourne, Horner revealed he made “stratospheric” offers to keep him at Red Bull but…
“Daniel could see Max [Verstappen] in the ascendancy and he didn’t want to become the second driver,” he told The Weekend Australian.
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“His timing was spectacularly bad because obviously, he had doubts about the Honda engine and then [Honda] went on to prove it was a competitive power unit and a race-winning package.’’
After two years at Renault, Ricciardo then moved again to McLaren at the start of 2021, where, despite winning last year’s Italian Grand Prix, he has struggled to match teammate Lando Norris.
But responding to questions over his Red Bull exit, the 32-year-old admits they are inevitable while ever he is not in a front-running team.
“Obviously, I would love to win a title with McLaren and then kind of say ‘I told you so’ or whatever, but I appreciate until that happens then there will probably be that narrative with a lot of people,” he told the Herald Sun.
“That’s okay, it doesn’t bother me. I also knew that it was going to come with the territory of leaving a big team and obviously at the time I felt like that was the right thing for me.
“You kind of stand by that and it really did feel like the right thing.
“It’s not something I look back on and regret or think I should have done differently,” added Ricciardo.
“I guess as well now Red Bull are back on top or fighting again for the world titles, I knew that would come around as well.
“But there are also a lot of things internally in the team so it’s not just [about] ‘the car is fast, you should have stayed’.”
And while Horner laments Ricciardo’s decision to leave, he remains a firm believer in his abilities.
“Daniel is a great driver and we were sad when he decided to leave the team here,’’ he admitted. “And it’s unfortunately not worked out for him the way he would have liked.
“He’s got great natural abilities, a big personality. Of course, now he’s got a competitive teammate as well. It’s given him a hard time and that’s tough for him.’’