Ricciardo 'best overtaker in the business' declares Horner

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Daniel Ricciardo may have already left the building, but Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is still happy to sing the Australian's praises.

"He’s driven some fantastic races for us," Horner told Motorsport.com recently. "Ever since he got in a Red Bull car he’s done nothing but overtake, and arguably has become the best overtaker in the business."

Ricciardo's pass on Valtteri Bottas at the Chinese Grand Prix was one of the nominations for 'Action of the Year' in the FIA's 2018 Prize Giving awards.

He himself said last month that his approach had "changed the level of overtaking from other guys in the sport as well." He went on to add, "I realise that sounds a bit cocky, but I really do believe that."

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Horner said that Ricciardo's reputation as the king of overtaking in F1 was somewhat ironic, as the team's one doubt before they hired him to replace Mark Webber in their driver line-up for 2014 was whether he had the ability to effectively race and pass rivals on the track.

"When we were first faced with the dilemma of who do we replace Mark Webber with, there was Jean-Eric Vergne, there was Daniel Ricciardo and there was Kimi Raikkonen," Horner explained.

"Our biggest concern about Daniel wasn’t his pace, it was we hadn’t seen him race wheel-to-wheel while he was in a Toro Rosso!"

Ricciardo soon laid those doubts to rest, while his personality was also an immediate perfect fit with the team.

"His energy in the team has been hugely popular," he said, adding that team mate Max Verstappen had also been a big factor in the team in recent seasons.

"The dynamics with him and Max, you’ve only got to look at the mischief that they get up to," he pointed out. "It’s been great."

Horner added that it was a shame that Ricciardo had bowed out of his time at Red Bull without one last podium appearance in Abu Dhabi.

“We were all hoping that Dan would be there," Horner said. "Last race with the team, we wanted him to do a shoey for the final time. It wasn’t to be in the end."

Ricciardo surprised the paddock by announcing he would move to Renault in 2019, leaving Red Bull calling up Pierre Gasly to race alongside Verstappen next season.

As for his Christmas plans, Australian newspaper reports say that the 29-year-old is currently dating fashion model Jessica Gomes. Like Ricciardo, Gomes also originally hails from Perth.

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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.