Daniel Ricciardo has opened up about his departure from Red Bull. In a new interview with 'The Athletic', the driver confessed he was concerned about how a long-term rivalry with teammate Max Verstappen would have unfolded, even speculating it could have ended his career sooner.

The former Formula One driver recently gave an interview with ‘The Athletic’, where he spoke about his life after Formula One. He also reflected on the ‘what if’s’ which caused him to talk about his former teammate, Max Verstappen, and how he might have not been able to keep up with the Dutchman.

“ There’s also a scenario where Max just obliterated me as the years went on and maybe my career ended even quicker” Ricciardo stated,

“I don’t know. At the time, I was competitive with Max, and we were pushing each other really well. It’s just hard. I’m sure maybe I would have still won more races than I ended up winning. But I can’t deny that Max is Max.”

Verstappen and Ricciardo paired up from 2016 to 2018. Daniel Ricciardo won seven races with the Red Bull camp before moving to Renault (now Alpine) in 2018. Ricciardo won just once with McLaren in 2021 before moving back to Red Bull and eventually joining Racing Bulls.

However, his comeback was short-lived as a wrist injury caused him to get sidelined. Ricciardo failed to meet the team's expectations, causing him to retire from the sport in 2024 after the Singapore Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo opens up about ‘team dynamic' at Red Bull 

With Verstappen joining Red Bull, Ricciardo eventually decided to leave the team. At the time, the former team principal Christian Horner said that the Australian was “running from a fight” with his teammate.

Daniel Ricciardo denied the claim that he avoided going head-to-head with Verstappen, but it was rather about the team dynamics.

“At the time, some of the narrative was all like, 'Am I kind of running from the fight? ’. I don’t think I was running from the fight.” He said, “I was just concerned with how things were going to go moving forward. I was more concerned about the team dynamic than running from a fight.” 

Ricciardo added that he was curious how the teammate battle with Verstappen would have turned out. The fans got a glimpse of the potential battle during the race at Baku 2018. 

As of now Daniel Ricciardo remains an ambassador with Ford while Max Verstappen is currently competing in the ongoing Formula One season with Red Bull.

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Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi