Daniel Ricciardo is said to be the main catalyst in the F1 2019 driver market. However, his contract situation has dragged on well into F1’s summer break. In fact, the Red Bull team even set the summer break as the unofficial deadline for the Australian to re-sign.
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The 29-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season and is rather coy on his future. Many expected Ricciardo to re-sign after the race. However, he confessed that he “honestly doesn’t know” about any update on his contract.
“I test Tuesday actually, then I’ll escape Wednesday and head far away from race cars for a few weeks,” Ricciardo said.
The Australian admitted that he honestly doesn’t have a clue but expects it over the break. Meanwhile, team boss Christian Horner has said that there is a limit to their patience regarding Ricciardo’s signature.
“There should be a decision by the summer break at the latest,” Horner said back in April.
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Daniel Ricciardo
Inspite of the dilly-dallying, Ricciardo seems destined to remain with Red Bull next year. Especially after Mercedes re-signed Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas for 2019.
The only other rumoured option is Ferrari. But the Maranello team is yet to confirm Kimi Raikkonen as Sebastian Vettel’s 2019 teammate.
However, Alfa Romeo-Sauber’s Charles Leclerc could come knocking if Raikkonen is not retained. So that means that Ricciardo is more or less stuck with Red Bull.
Ricciardo has left Red Bull bosses sweating over his signature heading into the summer break after once again showing why he’s one of the field’s most talented drivers during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Aussie dropped as low as 16th on the first lap of the race after Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson clattered into his car’s left-hand side heading into the first corner.
But he persistently fought his way back through the field with a series of perfectly-executed manoeuvres that saw him regain 12 places, and finish fourth.
Ricciardo remains fifth in the driver standings, 13 points ahead of his teammate Dutch Max Verstappen, who suffered a power unit failure and retired from the race on lap six.
