Daniel Ricciardo a year on from Renault switch: “Alright, yellow and black”
F1 News
- Bevan Youl
Daniel Ricciardo reflects on the events of one year ago when he made the decision to swap racing with Red Bull for Renault for 2019 during last season’s summer break, stating he wasn’t sure where he’d end up this year.
Rewind just over 12 months to the 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix where the Aussie finished fourth from starting 12thon the grid and had been in talks with Red Bull for a new contract for the 2019 season.
But reportedly only a new one-year deal was offered to Ricciardo, who revealed was also in talks with McLaren as well as Renault.
Three days into the summer break after the Hungarian GP finished last year he announced his decision to race for Renault from 2019, something he didn’t know he was going to do until he set foot on holiday.
Ricciardo said to Autosport: “I remember, coming into the weekend, I was still a little bit probably oblivious of what was going to happen and where I would end up.
“But as the weekend progressed, Friday or Saturday, it was like, ‘alright, some teams are really pushing me, they need to know answers’ – so it started to ramp up.
“And it was Sunday night we had to start to really decide what to do, and I was like ‘I’m just going to go out tonight, have a few drinks, and maybe I’ll find my answer with a few friends’.
“And then on the Monday it all kind of started to kick off a bit more.
“When I landed, I was like ‘alright, yellow and black’.”