Formula 1: Have Renault ruled out bringing back Daniel Ricciardo?

Daniel Ricciardo is in a contract year with Renault in the 2020 Formula 1 season. Will the team bring him back next year?

Daniel Ricciardo is in the second of two Formula 1 seasons on the contract he shockingly signed with Renault back in August of 2018 when he was still competing for Red Bull Racing.

There have been all kinds of rumors about what the 30-year-old Australian’s future may hold, especially with two of the sport’s top-tier teams potentially looking to fill one of their seats next year.

Valtteri Bottas is in a contract year with Mercedes while four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel is in a contract year with Ferrari. Ricciardo has been linked to both seats, with the latter having caused a lot more recent discussion.

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In August, Renault made the decision to release veteran Nico Hulkenberg and sign youngster Esteban Ocon to a two-year deal beginning in 2020.

At the time, team managing director Cyril Abiteboul stated that he would like to pair the 23-year-old Frenchman with another young driver in 2021, all but indicating that the French marque did not plan on extending Ricciardo’s contract by another year or more, thus turning him into arguably the hottest free agent on the market.

Here is what he had to say at the time, according to RaceFans.

"“It was important when given the opportunity to seize the opportunity of a complete driver in Daniel last year and we don’t regret that at Renault. Just like right now we think it’s the right moment to start having some fresher blood.“I think it’s a trend actually you can see in several teams. We are also interested in young drivers with our academy. We hope and expect to have possibly one driver from that academy by 2021. So it’s also a shift of dynamic to start really welcoming young drivers in our line-up.“It’s not something that we would have been capable of doing two years ago but I think with more maturity in the team we can now envisage that. And that would be a good test to see if we are capable of also managing that because it’s a different type of management. Managing some who is 20, 22 or in his thirties, that’s different.”"

When discussing the possibility of Vettel being available for the team to sign next year, Abiteboul did not rule it out, but he reiterated this claim, even going as far as naming 18-year-old Christian Lungaard as a potential replacement for Ricciardo in 2021.

Here is what he had to say, according to Autosport.

"“[But] I rather aspire to work with tomorrow’s drivers than yesterday’s. … We need to keep this in mind, as we created this academy in 2016 with the goal of having a driver graduate to F1 in 2021. Now 2021 is coming, we have to acknowledge it. Typically, there’s Christian Lundgaard. He’s an option among others: he’s got his F2 season to do, we’ve got our own season to do with Daniel.”"

So is a Ricciardo 2021 return already out of the question?

Not exactly.

Here is what Abiteboul had to say about the matter, according to Autosport.

"“We’ve got to retain him [Ricciardo] based on good foundations, shared foundations. The project is what matters. I’m answering the question without really answering it, but I think we need to wait and see the first races.“Have we made a step forward? Are we recovering a little more confidence compared to last year? Is he still integrating better within the team? Then, if we feel like we’ve got a long-term project, why not?“I think Daniel cares a lot about his move to Renault, which was very criticized by some media – British media – who don’t understand it. This idea of building a project on the human, technical and sporting side matters to him. He’s someone who is guided by his emotions and he wants to show he can stick to his decision, as long as it proves to be a good one.”"

Bottom line, it is still far too early to know what the futures of Ricciardo and Renault hold. While there is certainly a solid amount of interest from the latter in moving to a younger lineup, this pairing still has the potential to succeed, in which case, as Abiteboul noted, there would be no reason not to allow it to become a long-term project

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Will Daniel Ricciardo return to Renault for the 2021 Formula 1 season? If not, where will he end up instead, and who will replace him? This is all still up in the air, as nothing has been ruled out.

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