Daniel Ricciardo says he snubbed the offer of a new two-year deal at Red Bull to sign for Renault due to doubts over the Honda engine.
The Australian made the shock announcement at the end of last season that he was leaving Red Bull to take up a position at Renault for 2019.
With seven race wins under his belt and seemingly the opportunity to compete at the top of the grid with RB moving forward, it seemed a strange decision to join Renault.
But the 29-year-old, who was dogged by mechanical problems last year, has explained he did not want to commit himself to the two-year offer on the table from Red Bull and was instead initially after just a 12-month extension so he could judge if the Honda engine was working well after a full season.
Then, Ricciardo admitted to having doubts over the shorter deal and instead opted for a clean break with Renault.
He told Racer: “What I was going back and forth with was, originally [Red Bull] wanted to do a two-year deal, and because I’d already questioned if I wanted to do another year there, doing two years, I was a bit concerned with me personally; with my motivation to still be there.
“I was just thinking if Honda doesn’t work, next year’s a year of frustration, then am I really going to want to do another year on top of that, or am I just going to get a bit over it?
“So initially the two-year thing was something that concerned me, so then it was like: OK, let’s try and push for a one year and if the Honda works, great, we’ll extend it and whatever.
Easy. “But then one year felt risky. It felt like I wasn’t really achieving anything by signing a one-year. I don’t know, it just didn’t really add up. So what I thought I wanted, I didn’t really want in the end. So there wasn’t really anything for me.”
He added: “The two-year, for me, I didn’t really feel I wanted, and a one-year was like it puts me in this position again in 12 months time, and I don’t really want to be back in this position to be honest, because it’s starting to become a bit wearing.”
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