Hamilton hails 'brave' Ricciardo career move

Lewis Hamilton has praised Daniel Ricciardo for the Australian's "brave" decision to move from Red Bull to Renault for the start of the 2019 Formula One campaign, and likened the decision to his own to join Mercedes from McLaren, which paid off enormously.

During the month-long summer break, Ricciardo shocked the F1 world when he announced he would be ditching Red Bull in favour of Renault, who are a currently operating as a midfield team.

Speculation surrounding the move suggested that Ricciardo did not want to play second-fiddle to Red Bull's alleged golden boy, Max Verstappen, anymore. The move will ultimately see him leave a top three team for a mid-card outfit, but Hamilton has acknowledged the bravery of the decision.

"I'm really happy for him," said Hamilton.

"It's always brave to make a decision that's out of the norm, knowing that people are going to have opinions about it, and still halfway through a season not knowing how the next year's going to go.

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"It's an exciting period for him. A lot of people in life are scared of change, of what's different, and therefore get stuck in a space that's not their happiest space but they get by.

"It's cool to see that Daniel, similar to me, is wanting to elevate himself, wanting to try something new, and learn from it – good or bad, and take the risk."

Renault chief technical officer Bob Bell, who is set to leave the team, weighed in on the comparison to Hamilton leaving McLaren and Ricciardo leaving Red Bull.

"It's not the same situation because of course when Lewis made the jump, there was the change in engine regulations," Bell told Motorsport.com.

"Let's face it, that had a massive impact on Mercedes' success that Lewis was able to reap the reward of. I think it will be much harder for Daniel, but ultimately, the end story will be similar, that he'll feel he did the right thing."