Daniel Ricciardo is leaving Red Bull Racing to join Renault in the 2019 Formula 1 season. Who are the top five candidates to replace him?
In a move that shocked the Formula 1 world, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo signed a two-year contact to join Renault Sport starting in the 2019 season after his fifth consecutive season with Red Bull Racing comes to a close.
Ricciardo signed with the team ahead of the 2014 season to replace Mark Webber, and he has driven for the team ever since. However, when they officially switch from Renault engines to Honda engines next year, he will no longer be one of their two drivers.
This leaves Red Bull Racing in search of a second driver to pair with 20-year-old Max Verstappen, who signed a contract late last season to remain with the team through at least the 2020 season.
While there are several drivers who would likely do well as Ricciardo’s replacement at Red Bull Racing, the team are in a bit of a bind because of the fact that Ricciardo’s impending departure was so unexpected, so their decision as to who their second driver will be next year will likely not be made right away.
Who will the team end up announcing as their second driver for the 2019 season? Here are the top five replacement candidates for the 29-year-old Australian at Red Bull Racing next year.
Carlos Sainz Jr.
Carlos Sainz Jr., 23, is the driver who Daniel Ricciardo is set to replace at Renault Sport next season, and seeing as how Sainz Jr. is a Red Bull Racing driver who is on loan to Renault just for this season, it would make sense for him to replace Ricciardo.
Sainz Jr. drove full-time for Scuderia Toro Rosso, the Red Bull Racing junior team, in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. In the 2017 season, he drove in the first 16 races for the team before starting his tenure at Renault early as a result of the early departure of Jolyon Palmer.
With Red Bull Racing switching from Renault engines to Honda engines in the 2019 season, it was unknown as to whether or not Red Bull Racing would be able to continue to loan Sainz Jr. to Renault beyond the conclusion of the 2018 season if they did not have a seat open for him.
Now, Sainz Jr. will most assuredly not drive for Renault next year, Red Bull Racing have a seat open for him, but will he end up driving for the team? The move would make perfect sense, but would the team want to risk a renewed rivalry between him and Max Verstappen?
Plus, Ricciardo’s seat may not end up being the only seat within the Red Bull Racing organization to be open for Sainz Jr. If a Toro Rosso driver ends up replacing Ricciardo, that would open up a seat for Sainz Jr. as well, so while he certainly has a good chance to replace Ricciardo, it’s not like Red Bull Racing are the only team for which he could possibly drive in 2019, and it’s not like Red Bull Racing have no flexibility with him, either.
Which Toro Rosso would be a good candidate to replace Ricciardo?
Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly, 22, is in his first full season as a Formula 1 driver, and he drives for Scuderia Toro Rosso, the Red Bull Racing junior team. He drove for the team as the replacement for Daniil Kvyat in five of the last six races of the 2017 season as well.
In his first season as a full-time Formula 1 driver, Gasly has performed at an impressive level, especially given the fact that this season is also the first season during which Toro Rosso have used Honda engines, so him replacing Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull Racing next year is certainly a good possibility.
In just the second race of the season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, Gasly finished in fourth place, which is higher than any result of any McLaren driver from the 2015 season through the 2017 season when they used Honda engines before switching to Renault engines ahead of the 2018 season, something they did only because Toro Rosso switched from Renault engines to Honda engines.
Gasly has recorded three top seven finishes through 12 races so far this season, and he sits in 13th place in the driver standings with 26 points as a result of it. In addition to his fourth place finish in the Bahrain Grand Prix, he finished in sixth in the Hungarian Grand Prix and seventh in the Monaco Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, Gasly’s teammate, Brendon Hartley, has just two 10th place finishes and two points to show for it this season. He sits in 19th in the driver standings. Gasly is clearly the better of the two Toro Rosso drivers, and his far superior performances in equal equipment compared to Hartley shows it.
With Red Bull Racing switching from Renault engines to Honda engines in the 2019 season, it may be good for them to hire a driver who has prior experience driving a Honda-powered car, and Gasly fits that description. Add to that the fact that he is already within the Red Bull Racing organization, and it would make perfect sense for him to replace Ricciardo next year.
But Gasly isn’t the only driver with Honda experience who has a chance to replace Ricciardo in 2019.
Fernando Alonso
Two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso, 37, will likely not return to McLaren in the 2018 Formula 1 season, as he has grown increasingly frustrated with the team’s lack of performance over the last few years both during their time using Honda engines and their first season using Renault engines. In fact, since returning to the team in the 2015 season, he has not finished a race in higher than fifth place.
Many rumors suggest that Alonso will attempt the Indianapolis 500 again next year, especially since he has now two of the three races that make up the Triple Crown of Motorsport. He won the Monaco Grand Prix in the 2006 and 2007 season, and he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year for the first time in his career, so a win in the Indy 500 would make him just the second driver to win all three races of the Triple Crown of Motorsport.
Many rumors also suggest that Alonso will drive full-time in IndyCar next year and that he may do so with McLaren if they are able to partner with one of the sport’s Honda teams.
While it is expected that Alonso will leave McLaren and likely Formula 1 altogether after the 2018 season comes to a close, this would likely only be the case if he would have to drive for McLaren if he returned to Formula 1 next year, as he certainly would not turn down an offer to drive for one of the sport’s top teams. There is a rumor going around that he could return to Scuderia Ferrari, but the odds of this happening are very small, and a more realistic option may have just opened up.
With a seat at Red Bull Racing now open thanks to Daniel Ricciardo’s departure, this may be Alonso’s most realistic chance yet, albeit still a small one, to land a ride with a team that will give him a chance to add to his career Formula 1 victory total of 32.
If Red Bull decide to hire a veteran driver as opposed to a young driver, Alonso may be their best option since he certainly still has what it takes to driver at the front of the field in a competitive race car.
But Alonso isn’t the only veteran driver with an outside chance to replace Ricciardo next year.
Kimi Raikkonen
Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, 38, has been the subject of perhaps the most intriguing driver replacement rumors of the year so far, as many people believe that Alfa Romeo Sauber rookie Charles Leclerc, the 2016 GP3 Series champion and 2017 Formula 2 champion who is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, will replace the 2007 Formula 1 champion in the 2019 season.
In fact, it was revealed in June that Ferrari are ready to replace the 38-year-old Finn, who is driving for the team on a one-year contract for the third consecutive season, with the 20-year-old Monegasque in the 2019 season, and later in June, it was revealed that Leclerc and Ferrari had reached an agreement that had simply not yet been signed.
More than one month has gone by since then, and there have been no official announcements in regard to who will be the teammate of four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel in the 2019 season. But if Leclerc does end up getting the nod, leaving Raikkonen without a ride, and Raikkonen is not ready to retire, going to Red Bull Racing as Daniel Ricciardo’s replacement may make sense for Raikkonen.
While hiring Raikkonen would not be a conventional hire for Red Bull Racing, it would certainly be a strategic one. There are rumors that the fact that Red Bull Racing made 20-year-old Max Verstappen their number one driver may have had something to do with the fact that Ricciardo signed a contract to leave the team for Renault Sport next season.
With Raikkonen, Red Bull Racing would not have a problem establishing Verstappen as their number one driver. Raikkonen has done a great job in what has been effectively a support role for Vettel at Ferrari, and if he ends up being replaced by Leclerc (or even Fernando Alonso), he could very well do the same thing at Red Bull Racing.
With Raikkonen having not won a race since the 2013 season yet still being content at Ferrari from the 2014 season until now, it doesn’t seem like Red Bull Racing’s impending switch from Renault engines to Honda engines next season would deter him from wanting to drive for the team, either.
But would another veteran driver, one who hasn’t driven in Formula 1 for almost a decade, be an even better option?
Robert Kubica
Robert Kubica, 33, is the current reserve driver for Williams Martini Racing. He was widely believed to be the lead candidate to replace Felipe Massa this season since Massa retired at the end of last season, but Sergey Sirotkin was able to bring more financial backing, allowing him to team up with Lance Stroll.
At this point, Kubica may very well be happy that Sirotkin got the second Williams seat, as Williams have struggled mightily this season. Through 12 races, they have secured just one top 10 finish, with that being an eighth place finish by Stroll in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
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The team sit in 10th (last) in the constructor standings with just the four points earned by Stroll as a result of that eighth place finish, and they trail the next lowest team in the standings, Alfa Romeo Sauber, by 14 points, meaning the odds of them even having a slight chance to finish in ninth in the standings are extremely slim.
Among the veteran drivers who are not currently driving in Formula 1 but have aspirations of doing so, it would be hard to find one with more talent than Kubica, who last drove in Formula 1 in the 2010 season.
After driving in six of the 2006 season’s 18 races for Sauber, he drove full-time for Sauber from the 2007 season through the 2009 season before driving for Renault full-time in the 2010 season. Since then, he has been out of the sport aside of his current role as the reserve driver for Williams.
In his Formula 1 career, Kubica has secured one victory, with that victory coming in the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix, 13 podium finishes and three top eight finishes in the driver standings, including a career-high fourth place finish in the 2008 standings.
While not many people would expect it, Red Bull Racing could most definitely hire Kubica to replace Daniel Ricciardo next year. He is very talented and would likely contend for podium finishes if not race victories despite the fact that he hasn’t driven in the sport since 2010. In fact, he had a deal to drive for Scuderia Ferrari in the 2012 season, but injuries that he suffered in a 2011 rally crash prevented him from doing so. He could be a steal for Red Bull Racing.
Which driver do you believe will replace Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull Racing in the 2019 Formula 1 season now that the 29-year-old Australian has signed a two-year contract to drive for Renault?