Red Bull’s motorsport advisor, Dr Helmut Marko, has ruled out Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo rejoining the team again in the future.
Ricciardo is coming toward the end of his first season with Renault after deciding in 2018 that he was going to leave Red Bull for a new challenge.
The Aussie has certainly been presented with one as the Enstone team are set to lose their ‘best of the rest’ crown to McLaren this year, in a season which has been overshadowed by disqualification at the Japanese Grand Prix due to illegal use of driver aids and question marks have also been raised over Renault’s future in Formula 1.
A changing of the guard at Renault, with Clotilde Delbos coming in as CEO, has resulted in a full-scale review across the company which includes Renault’s involvement in Formula 1 from 2021 and beyond.
But, if Renault do ultimately decide to pull the plug on their Formula 1 operation, Marko has said that Ricciardo would not be given a lifeline by his former team – even in the extreme event that teams like Red Bull starting running a third car.
“Our drivers are fixed. There is no room,” Marko is quoted as saying by GrandPrix247.
On the option of running a third car, he replied: “That was not discussed. but who should pay for it?
“I would assume that the team would be immediately taken over by someone else.”
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