Red Bull boss Christian Horner slams Daniel Ricciardo for quitting F1 team and reveals ‘stratospheric’ contract offer
DANIEL RICCIARDO made a “spectacularly bad” call leaving Red Bull for Renault ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 season, claims Christian Horner.
The Aussie left Red Bull after five seasons, despite being offered “stratospheric” sums to stay.
Things didn’t work out as he’d hoped with Renault, with Ricciardo jumping ship again for McLaren ahead of last season.
Reflecting on Ricciardo’s decision while speaking to The Weekend Australian, Horner said: “Daniel could see Max (Verstappen) in the ascendancy and he didn’t want to become the second driver.”
Red Bull switched to a Honda engine for the 2019 season, with Ricciardo having doubts over how competitive it’d be – gambling that he’d have a better chance of success in the Renault.
Horner, 48, continued: “His timing was spectacularly bad because obviously, he had doubts about the Honda engine and then (Honda) went on to prove there it was a competitive power unit and a race-winning package.
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“Daniel is a great driver and we were sad when he decided to leave the team here.
“It’s unfortunately not worked out for him the way he would have liked.
“He’s great natural abilities, a big personality. Of course, now he’s got a competitive team-mate as well.
“It’s given him a hard time and you know, that’s tough for him.”
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Ricciardo has endured a horrendous start to the season – coming 14th in Bahrain before failing to finish in Saudi Arabia.
He has also seen his team-mate Lando Norris pen a new four-year contract worth £20million-per-season – nearly double what Ricciardo takes home per year.
The veteran is under contract with McLaren until 2023.