No regrets from Ricciardo on Red Bull exit

Daniel Ricciardo insists he does not regret leaving Red Bull for Renault even though it is a step down into the midfield battle, as his former team aren’t close to winning the title anyway.

Before the 2019 season, the Australian surprised everyone when he decided to leave Red Bull after a 10-year association to join Renault, who are not one of the elite top three teams in F1. Ricciardo felt that he was being viewed as the secondary driver to Max Verstappen, who claimed Red Bull’s first win of the season in Austria two weeks ago.

For Ricciardo, he isn’t questioning his decision to move.

“No. Honestly, no regrets. By that time last year, Red Bull had three wins. That was the first,” he said of the Bulls’ win in Austria.

“Obviously I’m further back at the moment, absolutely, but I expected this and if I stayed at Red Bull it was to win a title.

“Sure, they got the win last weekend but they’re still a fair way from the title. That’s not having a dig, that’s just the reality.

“So I don’t think I would necessarily have achieved anything else than I was already achieving there, so for that, no regrets.”

The last GP in Austria has been hailed as the race of the season so far, as Verstappen tore through the grid to eventually overtake Charles Leclerc with two laps remaining to win.

It was in stark contrast to the action in France, which many viewers dubbed as the worst race of the season.

Ricciardo is happy the sport was able to bounce back to form after the criticism following France.

“Part of me was pretty happy for them, and for F1 to just have a good race,” he continued.

“It went through a lot of scrutiny after France, so just for the sport to have a good race was awesome. I’m very happy that the last race went the way it did and hopefully there’s more like that.”

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