Why is Daniel Ricciardo leaving Red Bull?

Daniel’s career has been, in my mind, quite similar to Jenson Button’s.

Daniel Ricciardo

Both drivers are capable of winning world championships but find themselves in the right team at the wrong time. Button at McLaren and the Honda F1 team before 2009, Ricciardo at Red Bull during the hybrid era, just after their domination of the sport ended.

Button has matched every team mate except Fernando Alonso, who to be fair, has only ever been matched once by Lewis, and even that was more due to the toxic environment in the team at the time.

Daniel out-performed Vettel in their one season together and, despite being out-qualified by Verstappen, has shown superior race craft and has scored more points.

Reading between the lines…

He knows that Red Bull favour Max.

He knows that it is very unlikely that the Honda engine will improve enough to power Red Bull to a championship in 2019.

He knows that Renault are a works team and have the potential to build him a title winning car down the line.

Hulk is a cool dude and is blisteringly fast. He’s not going to get into unnecessary political nonsense so that makes him a better team mate.

Money aside, moving to Renault seems like a no-brainer to me. The Enstone team has always been a good place to be.