Daniel Ricciardo believes his run of bad luck this year will “dissolve” when the season ends after next weekend’s Abu Dhabi GP.
The Australian started the year in great form taking victories in China and Monaco raising the prospect of an outside chance for a title challenge.
Instead, those two races have been his only podium finishes this year and have been more than offset by eight retirements with a 50% finishing record in the last 12 events.
“After 2018 the bad luck is just going to dissolve. I think the bad luck will stay in 2018,” he predicted in Brazil.
One reason why that might be the case is his much-talked about move from Red Bull to Renault, something he once again defended last weekend insisting his decision would have been the same regardless of the Milton Keynes outfit’s level of competitiveness.
“I think before I had this run of misfortune, I was already looking and tempted to move on and have something different,” Ricciardo explained.
“Honestly I think whether I had a run of good races, or whether it had been a run like what I had, I don’t think it would actually change my feeling about where I’m going next year.”
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Some have reservations about his Renault switch though given recent performances and apparent lack of progress on the engine side but Ricciardo insists there are no regrets.
“I’m certainly excited for a change and for a new challenge,” he said.
“I guess part of me is, as excited as I am to try and [finish with] a good result, I’m also just excited to get the year finished and then start fresh with a new team next year.”