Ricciardo's future in F1, 'an important decision' to make

A week after the last testing sessions of the season in Abu Dhabi, Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) took the time to take a look back and analyze his end of the season. Victim of a mechanical breakdown on the Yas Marina circuit, the Australian was forced to leave Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) steal fourth place from him in the Drivers’ standings.

“The end of the year was terrible”, he estimates in a blog posted on the Red Bull website. “When you end a season this way, with almost no convincing results (6th in Brazil), there is a tendency to say that the exercise was moderately successful. But I replayed all the races in my head and there were some fairly decent and efficient moments. I won an event (in Azerbaijan in June), I had a series of three and five podiums in a row, I resisted Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) for third place in Austria…”

Overall, Daniel Ricciardo lived “a year with ups and downs”. “The withdrawals affected Max as well (Verstappen) than me, we suffered 13 abandonments in total. It's too much for us, compared to Mercedes (a retirement in Spain for Valtteri Bottas) and five for Ferrari. » Impossible for the wearer of number 3 to describe his season precisely. “There has been too much inconsistency to call it a great or bad season. Reliability was lacking and sometimes we could only wonder what was happening. For example in Mexico, I was the fastest on Friday and the next day I was one second behind the poleman (Hag). This story still doesn't make sense. »

2017 in pictures. Music by a band I love @TheNational – fake empire pic.twitter.com/YSJ0g0PVGh

- Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) December 1, 2017

2017 placed in the history books, the Australian driver looks to the future. A future with Red Bull beyond 2018? No one knows, but the person expects to be bombarded with questions from the first winter tests in Barcelona (Spain) in February. “To make it quick, there is absolutely no rush, and things can take as long as they need. I don't set a deadline for myself. It's an important decision for me, the most important of my career so far I think, so if I need time to choose well, then I'll take it. It won't be a distraction." he warns.

Arriving at a phase where his talent no longer needs to be proven, Daniel Ricciardo looks closely at the trajectory of Lewis Hamilton, who had decided to abandon his favorite stable McLaren for Mercedes training during restructuring at the end of 2012. “I’m 29, 30 next year. When Lewis changed teams he was the same age (almost 28 years old in reality). He was doing very well where he was, but his career has taken a completely different turn since then. (three world crowns). There are many things to take into account. »

" I know what I want, sports performance is more important than the wallet. The priority is to have the opportunity to fight for races and championships. Having the choice in my hands is a cool thing. No matter what happens, it will be a rewarding experience. It's part of evolution. »