Daniel Ricciardo isn’t feeling any sense of vindication by Honda’s decision to leave Red Bull and Formula 1 after 2021.
Back in 2018, the announcement that Red Bull would switch from Renault power to Honda was one of the “unknowns” the Australian pointed to as his reasoning to join the French manufacturer’s works team.
Ultimately, the impact wasn’t that great as the Japanese supplier made strong gains and all the power units appeared to converge.
But now Honda’s sudden call to withdraw from F1 has left Red Bull in a bit of a predicament over their future engine plans.
“I honestly don’t feel anything personal towards it,” Ricciardo said at the Eifel Grand Prix. “I’m not jumping around saying, ‘oh yeah look, I was right’. It’s nothing like that.
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“As far as Red Bull and my relationship with them and a lot of personnel in the team, I kept that strong throughout. Even through my decision, I kept good relationships. I never wanted them to struggle or suffer.
“Now they’ve got a decision to make with what happens next,” he added looking forward. “I don’t really look at it in a personal light of me winning or losing. It’s just the nature of the sport.
“There’s always a chance. The sport, it’s always changing so much, so there is a chance of stuff like this happens.
“I do hope they find a solution, a good one, and they stay afloat and keep becoming a rival for the rest of us.”
Red Bull’s preferred option is to buy the IP from Honda and continue using their engine under their name, but another outcome could see the Austrian company have to reunite with Renault.
“Obviously it’s not really up to me to decide how that goes, but I do think they could,” Ricciardo said on if it was a possibility despite their unhappiness recent history.
“There are emotions, then there’s business and there’s time. Time heals a lot of things, and whether things weren’t seeing eye to eye a few years ago or whatever it was, I don’t think that will necessarily remain forever.
“If that’s what ends up happening in the future, I think they can get back on good working terms. I never experienced anything that was irreparable, so I’m not concerned if that’s what they do. I think they’ll get on with it.”