Red Bull-Honda will prove Ricciardo right - Villeneuve

Red Bull-Honda will prove Ricciardo right - Villeneuve

Joas van Wingerden

Wednesday 8 August 2018 11:43

Jacques Villeneuve has backed Daniel Ricciardo's shock move from Red Bull to Renault. Although on the surface, switching from the third to fourth-placed team in F1 seems a gamble, Villeneuve believes that Red Bull's switch to Honda power units in 2019 could leave Ricciardo as a winner.

Ricciardo had been expected to sign a two-year deal, not just by the wider F1 world, but also Red Bull, who had recorded a video message with the Australian to announce a new deal.

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However, he made a huge U-turn last week, penning a two-year deal with Renault, where he will partner Nico Hulkenberg next season.

Part of Ricciardo's decision to leave Red Bull was reportedly down to a failure to guarantee an equal footing in the team with Max Verstappen.

"I've been talking about this for a month, but no one believed me," Villeneuve told the Journal de Montreal.

"Everyone thought he was staying at Red Bull, but it's great that he's going to Renault.

"It's a factory team with great resources

"The cooperation of Red Bull and Honda is not credible. Red Bull is also Max Verstappen's team in the sense that all the attention is on him."

Red Bull are yet to confirm who will partner Verstappen in 2019, although the decision is widely believed to be between Carlos Sainz Jr and Pierre Gasly.

Sainz has been on loan to Renault from Red Bull since the tail-end of 2017, while Gasly has impressed with Toro Rosso - powered by Honda - in 2018 and scored a fine fourth-place finish in Bahrain.