Horner: “There’s No Point Broaching Ricciardo”

Red Bull boss, Christian Horner spoke about Daniel Ricciardo’s decision to part ways with the team and move on to join Renault. Horner thinks that Ricciardo is missing out on bright prospects by making the move. Horner suggested that he was expecting positive results in the next couple of races from Daniel Ricciardo.

“He’s driving a competitive car that’s taken pole position this weekend and you can see the differential between where this part (the front) of the grid is and where this part (Renault) is two laps behind”, said Horner in an interview with Motorsport.com. He was also asked if Ricciardo might go on to regret this decision.“Only Daniel can answer,” said Horner.“There’s no point broaching that with him – the decision was made, he was comfortable with the decision.”

Ricciardo has had a disappointing season after his sixth mechanical retirement of his season, and eighth in total, at the Mexican GP. He went on to joke that his car was cursed. Horner said it was a frustrating match for the entire team. “I’m sure you can understand his emotions are running incredibly high. It’s gutting not just for him, but for the whole team”, said Horner.“We were looking at potentially a one-two finish, which has enormous value to us.”

Horner also said that it was only a case of bad luck and labelled it as a ‘dark cloud’ for Ricciardo. “It feels a bittersweet victory. (it’s) Fantastic for Max to have driven an outstanding race, but I’m pretty confident Daniel would have been able to hold off Sebastian over those remaining laps”, continued Horner.“You can understand his frustration and I hope that this dark cloud that’s following him around lifts for the final two races”, he added. Red Bull will be making the engine change from the Renault engine and will be replacing it with Honda next season.