Formula 1: Daniel Ricciardo says he doesn’t regret leaving Red Bull Racing

Despite Red Bull Racing’s recent victory and Renault’s struggles, Daniel Ricciardo says he doesn’t regret leaving the former to join the latter ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 season.

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix just under two weeks ago in thrilling fashion to secure the Milton Keynes-based team their first victory of the 2019 Formula 1 season, and one of the other drivers who was there to greet him and congratulate him on his victory, the sixth of his Formula 1 career, was Daniel Ricciardo.

Ricciardo drove for Red Bull Racing from the 2014 season through the 2018 season, doing so as the teammate to the 21-year-old Dutchman for much of the 2016 season and the entire 2017 and 2018 seasons, but he made the shocking decision to leave the team and signed a two-year contract with Renault ahead of the 2019 season.

So far this season, Red Bull Racing sit in third place in the constructor standings with Verstappen as their top driver in third in the driver standings.

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Meanwhile, Renault, the reigning “best of the rest” team behind Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, sit in fifth in the constructor standings, well behind McLaren, a customer team, no less, for the “best of the rest” fourth position.

Additionally, Ricciardo and teammate Nico Hulkenberg sit in a 10th place tie in the driver standings having combined to record just six top 10 finishes through the first nine races of the 21-race season.

But the 30-year-old Australian insists that he has no regrets about making the decision to leave Red Bull Racing, the team for which he drove to earn all seven of the victories that he has earned in his Formula 1 career thus far, and move to a team that have not recorded a podium finish in more than eight years and have not won a race in more than a decade.

Here is what Ricciardo had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.

"“No. Honestly, no regrets. By that time last year, Red Bull had three wins. That was the first. Obviously I’m further back at the moment, absolutely, but I expected this and if I stayed at Red Bull it was to win a title. Sure, they got the win last weekend but they’re still a fair way from the title. That’s not having a dig, that’s just the reality. So I don’t think I would necessarily have achieved anything else than I was already achieving there, so for that, no regrets.”"

This is Red Bull Racing’s first season using Honda engines after terminating their 12-year partnership with Renault, and this switch was something that Ricciardo was skeptical of to begin with even after mechanical issues hindered him throughout the 21-race 2018 season, resulting in six of his eight retirements and effectively ensuring that he would not finish higher than sixth place in the driver standings with his only two podium finishes being his two early victories.

While Red Bull Racing may be faster as a whole this season than they were last season, Ricciardo is right that at this point last season, they had won three races, including two that Ricciardo won.  In fact, they were tied for the Formula 1 lead in victories at this point last season.

So far this season, they have recorded just three podium finishes, all courtesy of Verstappen, who had recorded four podium finishes and earned one victory by this point in 2018.

However, a lot of this can be chalked up to the dominance that Mercedes have put on display so far this season, winning eight of the season’s first nine races and collecting six 1-2 finishes in their eight victories and never being completely left off the podium.

Are you convinced that Daniel Ricciardo has no regrets about leaving Red Bull Racing for Renault ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 season, or do you believe that “that could’ve been me” had to have entered his mind as he saw Max Verstappen overcome a terrible start and a 15-second deficit to win the Austrian Grand Prix?