{"id":49222,"date":"2021-03-24T21:36:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T22:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=49222"},"modified":"2021-03-25T00:08:58","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T00:08:58","slug":"the-final-insult-in-bitter-ricciardo-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=49222","title":{"rendered":"The 'final insult' in bitter Ricciardo split"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Ricciardo's<\/a> former team Red Bull are still upset with the way the Australian left in 2018, according to a leading Formula One reporter.<\/p>\n

Ricciardo announced his departure midway through the 2018 season, taking up a rich two-year deal with arch-rivals Renault.<\/p>\n

At the time Red Bull had just announced it would end a 12-year association with Renault engines, switching to Honda instead.<\/p>\n

Red Bull management had been highly critical of Renault's engines since the introduction of Formula One's turbo-hybrid regulations in 2014, that saw Mercedes usurp Red Bull as the sport's leading team.<\/p>\n

With Ricciardo looking to leave Renault when his contract expired at the end of the 2020 season, one team with a vacant seat was Red Bull, however Ricciardo was never seriously linked with a return.<\/p>\n

According to Sky Sports pit-lane reporter, Ted Kravitz, there's still some lingering tension between Ricciardo and Red Bull management.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

"It looked like Red Bull weren't going to go back to Daniel Ricciardo, or maybe they just hadn't thought of it," he told the In the Fast Lane<\/em><\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

"I think they're still annoyed really, (about) the way he left them actually.<\/p>\n

"I think (Red Bull advisor) Helmut Marko<\/a> hasn't really forgiven him, for disappearing off to Renault of all people, which was kind of the final insult.<\/p>\n

"If you're going to leave us, OK, but don't leave us for Renault, our dreaded rivals and ex-engine partners."<\/p>\n

\"Helmut<\/p>\n

Just three months ago Marko took another swipe at the Australian, claiming that the longer Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were teammates, the bigger the gap became in favour of Verstappen.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ricciardo is now preparing for his first season at McLaren,<\/a> with plenty of knowledgeable observers feeling the team has taken a step forward this season, even to the point of challenging the previously all-conquering Mercedes team.<\/p>\n

While Red Bull seem to be the front-runners, at least based on pre-season testing, little separates McLaren from Mercedes.<\/p>\n

McLaren have switched from Renault to Mercedes engines, a change that is expected to be worth a couple of tenths per lap.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

It's one reason Ricciardo has signed a three-year deal with McLaren, in the expectation it's his best chance of claiming an elusive world title outside of the top two teams.<\/p>\n

"He has to believe it, doesn't he?" Kravitz said.<\/p>\n

"He has to believe that in three years' time this McLaren Mercedes, with such clever things as a trick diffuser and stuff like that, is going to be a team with which you can challenge for the world championship.<\/p>\n

"I'd say at this point that would be optimistic."<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

But Kravitz suggested the three-year deal may not be set in stone, if Ricciardo thinks a better drive is available.<\/p>\n

"I would be staggered if there wasn't a clause in that three-year contract which said that 'if Red Bull or Mercedes have a space for me, then I can go'," he said.<\/p>\n

"Clearly he's in the business now of getting in a car that can challenge for the world championship. I don't think anyone doubts that he would be able to put a championship together, a campaign together if he had the right car.<\/p>\n

"He just needs to wait for the chance.<\/p>\n

"But he knows that something different has to change at Mercedes in order for that to happen.<\/p>\n

"Were something weird [to happen], and Lewis Hamilton to retire or [Mercedes] deciding to move Valtteri Bottas on, or both, George Russell is ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the Mercedes queue."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Ricciardo's former team Red Bull are still upset with the way the Australian left in 2018, according to a leading Formula One reporter. Ricciardo […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49224,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49222\/revisions\/49224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}