Why 2018 is Ricciardo's 'weirdest' season

Daniel Ricciardo has labelled 2018 his "weirdest season", having seen a brief flicker of title hopes quickly extinguished and then shocked Red Bull by confirming a departure to Renault. Ricciardo is one of just three drivers to secure multiple wins in 2018, with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, but he has less than half of Hamilton's points after 15 races.

Victories in China and Monaco inside the opening six rounds of the season put Ricciardo right amongst Hamilton and Vettel's title fight, but they remain his only podium finishes of the season.

By contrast, Hamilton has 12 podium finishes this year and Ricciardo's Red Bull teammate has six – despite a poor start to the year – but the Australian remains confident in his abilities.

He said in an interview with Red Bull's website: "It's been the weirdest season I've had in racing!"

"Winning two of the first six races is probably the strongest start I've ever had to an F1 season.

"After Monaco, I was thinking that the season looked very promising, and that we might even be in with an outside chance of fighting for the title.

"I still feel I'm driving well and applying myself properly but for all sorts of reasons it hasn't really worked out since then.

"My confidence has never dipped – but my motivation and love for the sport has been a bit up and down – though I tend to bounce back from that pretty quickly."

With just six races of his Red Bull career remaining, Ricciardo admits it is yet to fully sink in that he will soon be leaving.

"It feels mostly real – but honestly, I think when the chequered flag drops in Abu Dhabi, and I take off the Red Bull overalls for the last time, that's when it's going to hit me," he said.

"It's not so much the 'moving to Renault' part, as it is the 'closing the book on this part of my career' bit.

"From an emotional point of view, that's when it's going to hit me.

"I've been wearing a Red Bull helmet for over a decade now. It's been a fun journey and we're certainly not splitting on bad terms. I'm ready for something new."

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