Daniel Ricciardo fears his F1 career may have \u201cended even quicker\u201d if he had opted to remain at Red Bull beyond 2018 and found himself \u201cobliterated\u201d by Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
And he has denied that he was \u201crunning from a fight\u201d when he opted to join Renault for the 2019 season.<\/p>\n
Daniel Ricciardo: Red Bull exit a \u2018curiosity\u2019, not a regret<\/p>\n
Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust<\/p>\n Ricciardo remains one of the most celebrated F1 drivers of the modern era having claimed eight F1 wins in 257 appearances between 2011 and 2024.<\/p>\n The Australian announced his retirement from motorsport last year, 12 months after his final F1 appearance, before taking an ambassadorial role with Ford, Red Bull\u2019s F1 2026 engine partner.<\/p>\n Ricciardo claimed all but one of his F1 victories with Red Bull before joining Renault \u2013 now competing under the banner of Alpine \u2013 at the end of 2018.<\/p>\n What happened to Daniel Ricciardo?<\/p>\n What happened to Daniel Ricciardo? The compelling theories to explain his sharp F1 decline<\/a><\/p>\n Daniel Ricciardo: Defining the F1 legacy of the Honey Badger<\/a><\/p>\n Verstappen went on to win four consecutive world championships between 2021 and 2024, with Ricciardo\u2019s final victory occurring with McLaren at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.<\/p>\n Red Bull has struggled to replace Ricciardo in the years since with current incumbent Isack Hadjar the sixth driver to partner Verstappen since the Australian\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n Ricciardo has stopped short of branding his decision to leave Red Bull a regret, claiming that Verstappen might have \u201cobliterated\u201d him had he stayed.<\/p>\n Yet he has conceded that he would almost certainly have \u201cwon more races\u201d had he remained with the Milton Keynes team.<\/p>\n Asked what he would change if he could turn back time, he told The Athletic<\/a>: \u201cThe most obvious \u2018what if?\u2019 or whatever, especially for people on the outside, is: \u2018What if you stayed at Red Bull after 2018?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one where I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know if that was the right decision.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly, there was a bit of emotion in that, but there were reasons I didn\u2019t think it was going to work.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s also a scenario where Max just obliterated me as the years went on and maybe my career ended even quicker. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time, I was competitive with Max and we were pushing each other really well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just hard. I\u2019m sure, maybe I would have still won more races than I ended up winning. But I can\u2019t deny that Max is\u2026 Max.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time, some of the narrative was all like: \u2018Am I kind of running from the fight?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I was running from the fight. I was just concerned with how things were going to go moving forward.<\/p>\n \u201cI was more concerned about the team dynamic more than running from a fight.<\/p>\n \u201cBut am I denying that Max would have been extremely hard to beat? Absolutely not. But I\u2019m curious how that would have turned out.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019d go as far as saying [it\u2019s] a regret, but it remains a curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n Ricciardo\u2019s latest comments come after he admitted last week that he is \u201cgrateful\u201d for Racing Bulls\u2019 decision to replace him<\/a> in 2024 as it stopped him from having to take the decision to retire himself.<\/p>\n Appearing on the Drive podcast alongside Ford CEO Jim Farley, Ricciardo said: \u201cUltimately, I got let go. That was the reality at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI think once that happened, I\u2019d been let go twice in the last two years and it had also taken a lot out of me.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d put a lot of my soul into it. I was pretty exhausted by it.<\/p>\n \u201cOn reflection, I was grateful that they made the decision for me. I think it would have been hard to be like: \u2018I\u2019m done.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI think I knew I was probably done because I knew it was harder for me to perform at the level I could.<\/p>\n \u201cFor whatever reason, I lost a little bit of something and it\u2019s OK to admit it.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n