F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Ricciardo 'definite' of new Red Bull deal by Spa

Daniel Ricciardo says he's now confident that his new contract with Red Bull will be signed and sealed by the time Formula 1 arrives in Spa for the next Grand Prix of the season.

Having joined Red Bull from Toro Rosso in 2014, Ricciardo's current deal with the team expires at the end of 2018. With two pole positions and seven victories under his belt, he has been looking around to see what other teams could offer him.

But with Mercedes having extended the contracts of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, and Sebastian Vettel confirmed at Ferrari alongside wither Kimi Raikkonen or Charles Leclerc, the Australian's options had been narrowing in recent weeks.

Now it seems that he's reached the conclusion that no one can offer him better prospects of winning a world championship than his current team after all. His team mate Max Verstappen has already extended his stay in Milton Keynes through to 2020.

"It'll definitely be done by Spa," Ricciardo told the media in Hungary on Tuesday when asked about the status of his contract negotiations.

"Whether it gets announced over the break or at Spa [I'm not sure], but it's just a little bit of fine-tuning.

"It's all good. You will hear something soon I'm sure."

Ricciardo had previously hinted that the deal would be confirmed before the summer shutdown, but he now admits that this had never really been a serious objective.

"I was just making it up so you guys would stop asking me!"

Red Bull's decision to move to Honda power units from 2019, ending its 12-year relationship with Renault, has been one of the major factors in Ricciardo's thinking about his future.

Ricciardo battled his way to fourth place in last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, and was back behind the wheel of the RB14 again at the Hungaroring on Tuesday for a day of in-season testing.

He was only sixth fastest of the ten cars taking part. But crucially he completed more laps - 125 - than anyone else.

"We did some good work today. There was a lot of long run stuff, a lot of data gathering, and we got through some set-up changes as well, so it was a pretty good day for the team.

"We ran with a lot of rakes and aero parts, so I know we tried a few things, but honestly I’m not too sure of the detail," he added. "I do know we used some 2019 Pirelli test tyres and that did feel quite different, so we’ll see what comes of that.

"It was a pretty busy day and we got a lot of laps under our belt, so I don’t feel too bad about saying that’s me done for the moment – now it’s holiday time!”

Ricciardo's place in the cockpit has been taken by simulator driver Jake Dennis on Wednesday.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Williams' headaches persist into Vegas practice

Williams is continuing to fight uphill battles this weekend in Las Vegas as a knock-on…

28 mins ago

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

2 hours ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

3 hours ago

Hamilton delighted with ‘consistently strong day’ in Vegas

Lewis Hamilton was particularly happy with his opening day of running at the Las Vegas…

4 hours ago

Verstappen stuck with 'draggy' rear wing for Vegas

Red Bull fears that its prospects for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix - which…

5 hours ago

Ferrari and Mercedes admit to plank changes based on FIA’s TD

Ferrari and Mercedes have both modified their car’s floor element in Las Vegas to comply…

6 hours ago