Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admits “only Daniel” Ricciardo can say if he has any Renault regrets after his latest retirement in Mexico.
The Australian suffered his eighth DNF of the season while on course for a second place finish, undoing all of the positivity that had emerged after he beat teammate Max Verstappen to pole a day earlier.
Of those failures to finish six have been mechanical, with a hydraulics problem was to blame for Ricciardo’s exit on Sunday, leading to the 29-year-old calling his car “cursed” and suggesting he might quit and give his seat to Pierre Gasly two races early.
“Ricciardo is emotional but he suffered an immensely frustrating afternoon and I can understand that. I hope the black clouds will rise for him in the last two races,” Horner said, insinuating the seven-time race winner will be staying on.
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The majority of problems have also been linked to the Renault engine which the ‘Honey Badger’ will continue to drive in 2019 with his move to the works team albeit with an all-new unit being promised.
But when asked if he thought Ricciardo was perhaps questioning his bold switch, Horner refused to comment.
“Only Daniel can answer,” he told Motorsport.com “There’s no point broaching that with him – the decision was made, he was comfortable with the decision.”
All that the Briton did point towards, however, was the relative performance of the two teams last weekend in Mexico.
“He’s driving a competitive car that’s taken pole position this weekend and you can see the differential between where this part [the front] of the grid is and where this part [Renault] is two laps behind,” he noted.
