Ricciardo explains why he can't replace Vettel at Ferrari

Daniel Ricciardo has scotched any notion that he could replace Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari in 2020, in the unlikely event that the German retires from Formula 1.

With F1's silly season now starting to get into full swing, suggestions that Vettel is considering his F1 future were followed by claims that Ferrari had begun searching for replacements, with Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas top of the Scuderia's wish-list.

Having left Red Bull to throw his lot in with Renault this year, Ricciardo says his two-year deal with the French squad would preclude him from replacing his former team-mate at Maranello, even if there was an interest.

"To be honest, I've been seeing articles like for the last three or four years consecutively," Ricciardo told Auto Week of reported Ferrari interest.

"So it's not new to me now. I have my contract, it's a hard contract until the end of 2020, it was a two-year deal.

"So if Seb did walk away this year, then that's his decision, but I wouldn't be involved in that."

Ricciardo is 10th in the drivers' championship after nine races, with Renault having struggled to live up to their pre-season targets of closing the gap on F1's top three teams.

The Australian and team-mate Nico Hulkenberg finished outside of the points last time out in Austria, but Ricciardo says the team is not ready to give up on the 2019 campaign.

"There's a lot a lot of stuff to take care of this year still," he said. "I think Austria took a little bit of wind out of our sails, because we had quite good momentum through Monaco, Canada and France.

"Then we obviously didn't feel like we performed as well as we should have in Austria.

"I've been on the phone a little bit to the engineers this week and trying to figure it out. So Silverstone should be better. I think we've understood a little bit."

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