Daniel Ricciardo will be out of contract at the end of the F1 2018 season and is one for one of the most important decisions of his career with respect to his contract extension.
Red Bull and Ricciardo have now agreed on a deadline with respect to contract negotiations and want to get over with all contract related talk by that agreed upon deadline.
“We agreed with him a deadline,” Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport advisor told Sky Sports.
“So as soon as this deadline is over we’ll tell you if it’s yes or no.” he added.
Red Bull are desperate to get back to winning ways and with Max Verstappen already signed up until 2020, Ricciardo’s signature could mean that Red Bull will have probably the most promising lineups going into the 2019 and 2020 F1 season.
Ricciardo wants to see how he performs in the first few races and then maybe start contract negotiation as he expects himself to win a few of the initial GPs and then have some leverage with respect to contract talks.
I think realistically around April things will start to be spoken,” said Ricciardo.
“After a few races, hopefully I win the first few and I can have a powerful say in what I do!” he added.
A lot depends on how the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers’ go about their contract negotiations with their respective teams. Vettel and Hamilton will have long term deals in all probabiltiy but the position of the second driver is sure to open up, with both Bottas and Raikkonen having one-year deals.
A move to McLaren has been on the cards as well with Ricciardo tipped to be succeed Alonso, however, all the speculation will have to wait until April.
