RICCIARDO SAYS LOSING ENGINEER WAS ONE OF THE FACTORS IN RENAULT SWAP
Daniel Ricciardo says the prospect of losing Simon Rennie as his Formula 1 race engineer played a part in his decision to leave Red Bull for Renault.
Ricciardo was anticipated to sign a new deal with Red Bull for 2019, but instead shocked the F1 paddock by putting pen to paper on a two-year deal with Renault.
The 2018 campaign would have either way marked Ricciardo’s last season of having Rennie within his race crew.
The race engineer, who had served alongside Ricciardo since the very start of his Red Bull tenure, was keen to travel less so was being moved into a factory role.
“There were a lot of reasons, but losing Simon – I knew he wasn’t going to engineer this year, if I stayed at Red Bull, and I thought I had a good relationship with him, and there were some unknowns,” Ricciardo said.
“I was certainly comfortable with him. If I knew he stayed, I don’t know if that would’ve been the deciding factor, but it was another [thing] – obviously when you’ve got the Honda concern and a few others, I guess that was another little thing.”
Ricciardo reiterated that there was not “one bullet” that made him leave Red Bull, and said the team’s alleged favouritism towards team-mate Max Verstappen was not a major aspect, as “it was talked about more than [what] I saw”.
He also said Red Bull “did OK” in terms of the salary that was offered, adding: “That wasn’t a big difference in the end, it wasn’t a deciding factor.”