Chandhok: Year too early for Renault to have "top line driver" Ricciardo

Former F1 driver and current Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok is convinced Renault have been caught "slightly off-guard" by the signing of Daniel Ricciardo, as he thinks the team isn't ready yet to give a driver of his stature proper equipment to compete.

Ricciardo surprised a lot of people last summer by announcing his departure from Red Bull Racing, the team he'd been his entire F1 career (and he's been part of the Red Bull program since 2008). The seven-time Grand Prix winner will line up next to Nico Hülkenberg, replacing the McLaren-bound Carlos Sainz.

Renault finished fourth in the championship in 2018, only one place behind Red Bull and 29 points clear of number five Haas, but the gap between the French and the Bulls is quite substantial - almost 300 points (122 and 419 points respectively).

“Having Ricciardo as an ‘A-lister’ join them has kind of caught them slightly off-guard,” Chandhok argued to Motorsport.com at the Autosport International show.

“It’s probably a year [too] early for them until they are really ready for a top line driver. I think a good year for them will be fourth and maybe the odd podium and sort of establishing themselves as fourth.

“Last year they weren’t clearly ahead of Force India or Haas in terms of pace and this year they need to do that.

“They are the manufacturer team on the path to becoming a top team, so they’ve got to establish themselves as clearly the fourth best."

Since their return as a works team, Renault have set out the goal to win championships again. Three years in, significant progress has been made, but another leap will be needed to close the big gap with the three teams ahead of them.