MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo sticking with Red Bull

Forget about Daniel Ricciardo going to Ferrari – at least before 2019.

Ricciardo’s decided that, despite recent hiccups with Red Bull Racing and with a vacancy unlikely at dominant Mercedes, his best chance of becoming Formula 1 world champion in the next couple of years is by staying put.

He hasn’t had to sign or re-sign anything. The West Australian and Dr Helmut Marko, the powerful motor racing adviser to Red Bull energy drink tycoon Dietrich Mateshitz have simply confirmed this week that both sides will stick by the existing contract that lasts until the end of the 2018 season.

“Ricciardo will be with us until 2018, there is no doubt,” Marko said.

And Ricciardo said: “At the moment this looks like being the best place to be.

“If Mercedes don’t make changes (world championship leader Nico Rosberg’s contract is up at the end of this season, but – with Gerhard Berger handling his negotiations – it is virtually certain to be renewed) there is nowhere else that looks that attractive.

“Behind Mercedes it is the next-best place to be – and I hope that in 2017 we can be as good as Mercedes.”

Red Bull’s strategy error in the Spanish Grand Prix, which handed victory to Ricciardo’s 18-year-old teammate Max Verstappen, the pitstop bungle in Monaco that robbed Ricciardo of almost certain victory, and another slow stop – although much shorter – in Canada fuelled speculation of Ricciardo departing Red Bull.

Ferrari, where Kimi Raikkonen’s contract expires this year, has been touted for more than a year as a likely future home for Ricciardo, whose Italian heritage adds to the romance of that prospect.

But Red Bull, the world champion team in 2010-2013, is clearly more competitive again now – in terms of speed, if not yet operation – after Renault’s major upgrade of its hybrid power unit.

Despite Ferrari’s hype and hope it hasn’t yet got consistently close to challenging Mercedes, so Ricciardo is probably right to stick with Red Bull – with which he won three GPs in 2014 as his then teammate and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel went winless.

“I think the team is very happy with the line-up that they’ve got at the moment,” Ricciardo said.

“The contract was always long term and, in a way, it was always that length [until the end of 2018].

“But it’s performance-based. The only thing that was keeping things a bit open was performance … more from my side.

“Obviously Helmut and the team are happy with what I am doing and happy with me and Max and want to keep us on board.

“Helmut made a few comments … it’s good. Obviously it means he likes me. It’s hard to tell some days, but I honestly think the team is very happy with the line-up they’ve got at the moment. I’d say it’s pretty stable.”

RBR team principal Christian Horner said when Verstappen was brought in from Red Bull’s junior F1 team Toro Rosso at the Spanish GP that he believed Ricciardo and Verstappen to be the best driver combination in the sport.

That may be more potential than reality, but it could well be proved right.

Ricciardo said that he had not allowed recent race-day anger, especially in Monaco, to consume him.

While pleased with the progress Renault has made with Red Bull’s power unit, which carries TAG Heuer branding rather than that of the French car manufacturer, he did not believe his team was yet up to the level of Mercedes.

The new street circuit at Baku in former Soviet republic Azerbaijan, hosting its first GP this weekend, is unlikely to suit Red Bull’s RB12 car, but Ricciardo is more hopeful for the races in Hungary and Singapore.

He is excited at the prospect of making up time in the pit entry at Baku, but other top drivers – especially Rosberg and McLaren-Honda’s Jenson Button – are concerned about safety aspects of the longest street circuit in the championship at more than 6km and with speeds of up to 340km/h between its 20 turns.

Skodas head field for International Rally of Queensland
Amid this busy weekend of motorsport – with Le Mans, the GP in Baku, the V8 Supercars in Darwin and IndyCar at Road America – there’s an international rally in Queensland with competitors from eight overseas countries.

Indian Guarav Gill and 23-year-old German Fabian Kreim are the favourites for the International Rally of Queensland on the Sunshine Coast and in the Mary Valley – although it will be only Kreim’s second gravel event.

The pair drive Skoda Fabia R5s for the Indian-owned, Czech-backed MRF team.

While the event also has a round of the Australian championship, other challengers for the international honours are New Zealander Mike Young, another 23-year-old who won a stage at the NZ round of the Asia-Pacific championship in his Subaru, and improving Aussie Anthony Quinn from Coffs Harbour – not to be confused with Tony Quinn of GT racing fame – in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX.

The ARC field is headed by multiple national champion and this year’s series leader Simon Evans, in a Subaru, and contains Harry Bates, son of Neal in a Toyota Corolla S2000 rebuilt since the last round in Canberra, and Molly Taylor, who is third in the points in a Subaru that is the only Group N (showroom-spec) car in the field.

Meanwhile, a lot of talks are going in World Rally Championship circles about the controversial running order regulations that require the championship leader to run first on the road for two full days of WRC rounds.

The World Motor Sport Council is meeting in Italy next week, but August has been set as the deadline for a decision on the future running order – with a switch back to the series leader 'sweeping' the roads for only the first leg or allowing choices based on pace in the opening stages on Thursday nights appearing the most likely options.

Volkswagen and its superstar driver Sebastien Ogier, both triple world champions but beaten in recent events, have been vigorous critics of the existing system.

Four wheels certainly Price’s territory too

Dakar Rally hero Toby Price reached new heights at the Finke Desert Race in the Northern Territory on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

Apart from winning the motorcycle section for a record-equalling fifth time, Price was runner-up in the four-wheel division on debut – driving a 6.0-litre Geiser Brothers trophy truck with Kyle Pfitzner as his co-driver.

Glenn Owen and Matthew Ryan won the four-wheel section with 3.5-litre Nissan power.