MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo explains the big switch

Back on duty after Formula 1’s mid-season break, Daniel Ricciardo says next year’s switch to Renault is all about “a change of scenery” and he knows success won’t be immediate.

Peppered with questions at a press conference as F1 regrouped for the first of the nine remaining rounds this season, the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, the carsales.com.au global ambassador says there’s “no bad blood” with Red Bull and that he didn’t feel unloved with 20-year-old Max Verstappen the team’s blue-eyed boy.

While 29-year-old Ricciardo insists relations have always been good with Verstappen, the Dutch youngster doubts that Renault is “the best scenery to go to” and Red Bull motorsport chief Helmut Marko predicts there won’t be any Ricciardo “shoey” celebrations in a hurry once he joins the French team.

And Ricciardo admits that he knows he has next to no chance of winning first-up with Renault at next year’s Australian GP in Melbourne on March 17.

Renault’s F1 chief Cyril Abiteboul has told him not to expect to have a car capable of winning races until 2020 and certainly not a serious world title contender before 2021 – if he stays beyond his two-year contract.

“Obviously next year, begin realistic, it’s unlikely [I’ll be winning races],” Ricciardo said.

“Mercedes and Ferrari are the ones doing it consistently. Obviously we (Red Bull Racing) have been able to win some races this year, but in terms of really fighting for a championship it’s hard to deny Mercedes and Ferrari looking at next year.

“[But] their (Renault) short to medium-term plan looked really encouraging.

“I think what they’ve done in the last two years, the progress they’ve made, it encouraged me.

“Developments they’re making at the factory, and I think what they’re doing with their finances, where they’re spending basically, and the way they’re doing it, showed me that they want to win and they want to try to get there as soon as possible.

“Obviously, every team wants to win, or try to make it happen – but I saw some really good signs with what they showed me in their presentation and the way they… also their honesty as well.

“[They’re] Not telling me we’re going to win in Melbourne next year – as much as I’d like that – but the reality of that, it’s still going to be a bit of a process, but a process which is moving forwards pretty rapidly.”

Ricciardo said he had been “a little nervous” in telling Red Bull of his decision after it had been so widely anticipated he would stay put.

However, he said Marko, while shocked and “a little disappointed”, had been “understanding”.

“He’s known me for 10 years and I think he’d sensed at times some frustration or maybe something changing in me, so I don’t think it completely surprised him,” Ricciardo said.

“From my side, of course, it makes me sad to move on, but it was nice to know that I was wanted there and they wanted to keep me.

“By no means an easy decision. I guess I got to a point where I felt I was ready for a change. I’m
ready for a new challenge and just some fresh motivation.

“A few sleepless nights, for sure, trying to come up with the best conclusion, but once I made that decision and pulled the trigger I felt comfortable with it and it feels right moving forward.”

Was it a lack of confidence in the Honda power unit Red Bull will use next year that drove him to make the move?

“There wasn’t really one key factor other than really myself and wanting to have a change of scenery. That was the biggest, overpowering thing. It wasn’t necessarily the engine deal or this or that or the financials or whatever,” Ricciardo said.

“It was really just me coming to a point… it’s been five years with Red Bull Racing, or will be at the end of this year, 10 years with the company and obviously it’s been amazing and great, but it just felt like now is the time to take on something new.

“It’s not something I knew for weeks or months. It was all pretty much… obviously Renault was part of my considerations for some time. They didn’t come out of nowhere at the last hour, but I was really torn, obviously, with what to do and that process took time.

“Still on the race weekend in Budapest (Hungarian GP at the end of July, before the mid-season break) I wasn’t sure what I was going to be doing. I did the (official F1) test there on the Tuesday afterwards and took some time to think about it over the next 48 hours and then came to my decision.

“It wasn’t easy and there were a lot of factors, variables that I had to try to weigh up, but the key thing for me personally was that I felt it was time to make a change.

“I felt like at times my enjoyment of the sport was becoming a little bit, I don’t know, dulled down, a bit numb at times, and I just thought part of the routine was causing that.

“I’m still discovering myself in life and it’s changing pretty rapidly.

“I think people assumed I was pretty much done with Red Bull and ready to sign, but I’m pretty sure I always just said I was close to doing something but I never really said it was going to be 100 per cent with Red Bull.

“So there wasn’t anything that changed overnight that caused this decision and that’s pretty much where it was.

“I don’t feel my presence in the team this year has changed. I don’t think anything changed, really, over the process.

“It was more me, when I was away from the track, away from the sport, just laying in bed at night, more things were running through my head.

“I think just asking myself more questions; what I want and where I see myself… something like that.”

Australia will finally get next year the new senior open-wheeler category that’s been in the pipeline for several years.

S5000, a kind of modern Formula 5000 but with a control chassis and engine, will be managed by the Australian Racing Group that will also introduce the new 2.0-litre touring car series TCR, with Chris Lambden the category manager for the 5.0-litre V8 open-wheelers.

It has Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) approval and will meet Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) standards, with drivers having ‘halo’ head protection, but no calendar has been announced yet.

However, ARG is looking to run its categories at some Supercar rounds and some Shannons Nationals events.

The engine will be the fuel-injected 560hp Ford Coyote ‘Aluminator’ prepared by ex-F1 engineer Roger Higgins’ InnoV8 in Brisbane, with a Holinger six-speed sequential transaxle, the carbon fibre chassis a French-designed Onroak-Ligier adapted by Melbourne’s Borland Racing, with 17-inch rear tyres.

ARG director Matt Braid claims there is “extremely strong” interest from fans, teams and potential drivers.

“The car not only looks great but will be extremely safe, fast and spectacular on track, foregoing technical driving aids to ensure driver talent shines through and provide a level of excitement on track that open wheel fans in Australia and the world have not experienced in some time,” Braid said.

Category manager Lambden was the publisher of the former Motorsport News magazine, a former touring car privateer and F5000 historic racer and one-time Supercar board member who had one of the two concepts for a new 5.0-litre open-wheeler class that were merged to come up with S5000.

“It’s been an interesting pathway over the past 3½ years to get to this point, but what we’re now going to be able to offer Australian motorsport is actually better than I had ever thought we could achieve,” Lambden said.

“The 2018 FIA-spec Onroak-Ligier tub, amalgamated with the V8 engine and Holinger rear end makes up a totally contemporary S5000 car that is going to blow people away.

“It will retain the modest downforce and mechanical grip elements that we have aimed for, so it’s going to be fast and safe and, at last, we have a serious, spectacular, high-level open-wheeler category – perhaps Australia’s version of IndyCar.

“There have been a lot of people expressing interest in getting involved, and with CAMS now ticking off the car and the championship series, it is well and truly on."

CAMS chief executive Eugene Arocca said S5000 would be “a very welcome addition” to the Australian motorsport landscape.