Members of the Red Bull team have begun to make “jokes” at Daniel Ricciardo’s expense.

That is the news from Max Verstappen, the energy drink-owned team’s continuing driver.

Ricciardo is switching to Renault’s works team, but ironically he has been bearing the brunt of the problems with the French manufacturer’s customer engine at Red Bull lately.

“It’s ironic that it always happens on his car. I’m sure he’ll have a few words with his future employer about it,” team boss Christian Horner is quoted by Auto Bild.

Verstappen revealed that after Ricciardo’s latest Renault-related problem in Austin, the Australian was particularly furious.

“Daniel punched a hole in the wall between our rooms. I think within the team there are secretly some jokes being made about it,” he told the Dutch broadcaster Ziggo Sport.

“But for the team it is just very bad. I know exactly how he feels, as I experienced it often enough last year. It’s just bad,” Verstappen added.

So far this season, Ricciardo has retired from three of the last six races and had mechanical issues in nearly all of them. Coincidentally, this all began to occur ever since he announced his desire to join Renault in 2019.

Interestingly, the Aussie was also frozen out of post-season testing as Red Bull will not allow him to test their car. They also did not give him the liberty to get to grips with the Renault car.

The Abu Dhabi post-season test is important as all the teams will be testing the 2019 tyre compounds. Speaking of the tyres, Pirelli have revealed the ‘simpler’ tyre coding for next season.

So, instead of seven different compounds, the teams will have 3 basic combinations, Soft, Medium and Hard.

Coming back to Ricciardo and Red Bull, the Australian will be looking forward to a new start with a new team. Red Bull will also be welcoming fresh blood in the form of Pierre Gasly.