Daniel Ricciardo insists his future is still far from decided despite claiming victory in the Chinese GP this past weekend.
In the final year of his contract with Red Bull, the Australian has been linked with both Ferrari and Mercedes for 2019 with his stock only rising after Sunday’s performance in Shanghai.
However, though his current employers out-smarted their rivals on strategy and team boss Christian Horner maintains Red Bull is the best place for Ricciardo to be, the man himself is not going to make a rash call.
“I want to be with the best car. I think the weekend proved if I got the opportunity I can pull it off,” the 28-year-old said.
“If we can win a few more now with Red Bull, that looks very attractive. If not, there’s probably other options. Obviously, the win helps but if we were finishing sixth every race this year, then that’s not the most attractive option to me.”
Ricciardo also refused to be drawn into whether his victory means the Milton Keynes-based outfit will be in the championship fight this season, although…
“If we come out and win again in two weeks in Baku then I’ll probably say yes,” he added.
For all the talk of potentially replacing either of the two Finns or even Lewis Hamilton, as suggested earlier this week, the six-time F1 winner admits no contact has yet been made.
“I kind of feel like if they want me to race for them they should contact me, but they haven’t,” Ricciardo said.
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The man from Perth is also not wanting to set to sights too far into the future, something which may favour Red Bull.
“I don’t want to sign anything too long because I don’t know where the sport’s going,” he claimed, referring to the 2021 regulation changes.
“I feel like life is happening pretty fast. Each year something might change so I don’t want to tie myself down for four more years and then I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’.
“Ideally I’d sign a two-year contract. I think two years I can definitely be comfortable with and then see it from there.”