It seems as though Daniel Ricciardo has had some real challenges to contend with already in the 2019 Formula One season… Which is probably a tough pill to swallow considering how well he had been doing at Red Bull. However, is the Aussie driver regretting his decision to leave Red Bull and join Renault? Or will the French team pull through for him?
Why He Left
What we have to remember, is that although Ricciardo had been seeing some success with Red Bull, it was certainly overshadowed by the rise of Mighty Max Verstappen. Those who have watched the Netflix documentary, Formula 1: Drive to Survive, know all too well the conflict Daniel Ricciardo found himself in. On one hand, he loved driving in the Red Bull, particularly as it’s one of the most competitive cars outside of the top two teams of Ferrari and Mercedes. On the other hand, it was quite clear that Max Verstappen was getting preferential treatment – especially when his contract was renewed on some pretty impressive terms. The Australian driver knew it was time to leave, he just didn’t know where he would end up.
His First Choice?
It seems as though Renault certainly wasn’t Daniel Ricciardo’s first choice of team to leave Red Bull for. However, as Ferrari scooped up Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas promised to do better in 2019, the options were running out for Ricciardo. Renault used to provide the engine for Red Bull, until Christian Horner decided to pull out of the contract, so it seemed to make sense that he would follow the engine that had given him so much success in the past.
All Going Wrong
Unfortunately for Daniel Ricciardo, things haven’t been going as well as he had hoped in the 2019 Formula One season. He ended up with a DNF at his home race, the first race of the season in Australia, plus two more DNFs in Bahrain and Azerbaijan. In fact, he has only been in the points twice this season – seventh at Shanghai and ninth in his favorite race, Monaco. It seems to be all going wrong for Ricciardo, but Renault are hopeful.
Now that a few of the issues have been ironed out of the yellow car, and Ricciardo is finding his feet behind the wheel, we should see him climbing up the grid again soon. We hope!