Ricciardo believes Red Bull would have favoured Verstappen in title fight

Daniel Ricciardo says he left Red Bull because he no longer felt like the number 1 driver. Red Bull boss Christian Horner recently accused Ricciardo of "running from a fight" with Max Verstappen by switching to Renault, something the Australian flatly refuted.

Ricciardo insists that his decision was more to do with Red Bull than his highly competitive former Dutch teammate.

"I have nothing against Max," the Australian told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"We always got along well and that was even the case after the incident in Baku.

"I never thought that I couldn't work with him or that the team would give him a better car," Ricciardo added.

"But I think that in the event of a fight for the title, the team would be on Max's side. They want to make him the youngest world champion in history."

Red Bull chief Dr Helmut Marko has made clear his desire to see Verstappen eclipse Sebastian Vettel's record as F1's youngest champion – the Dutchman will beat the former Red Bull star's record if he is triumphant either this season or in 2020.

Verstappen's fate this year will rest largely with Honda's ability to compete with Mercedes and Ferrari, who both ended pre-season testing by topping the timesheets though Lewis Hamilton and Vettel respectively, however the Dutchman is not concerned after Red Bull were left behind in the headline times.

"They are always going to be quick,” he said.

"It's always difficult to say if we haven't done a run like they did but I'm not too worried about it.

"They are very quick, but I'm happy with what we've done so far. The long run pace we had was very promising, but Melbourne is a different track again, different temperatures, so it'll be about finding a good set-up."

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