Lewis Hamilton has praised Daniel Ricciardo for his risky decision to leave Red Bull and join Renault next season, with the Brit seeing comparisons with 2013, when he switched from McLaren to his current team Mercedes.
Much like Hamilton at McLaren, Ricciardo has left the team that has backed him ever since he was a teenager. Red Bull signed Ricciardo ten years ago into their junior programme, before promoting to Toro Rosso in 2012 and eventually getting a seat at Red Bull's F1 team in 2014.
In 2019, he'll leave all of that behind to go to Renault, which is a risky move, as it will likely be a step down, at least in the first year. Hamilton admires his bravery to have made that decision.
"I'm really happy for him," the Brit told Autosport.
"It's always brave to make a decision that's out of the norm, knowing that people are going to have opinions about it, and still halfway through a season not knowing how the next year's going to go.
"It's an exciting period for him.
"A lot of people in life are scared of change, of what's different, and therefore get stuck in a space that's not their happiest space but they get by.
"It's cool to see that Daniel, similar to me, is wanting to elevate himself, wanting to try something new, and learn from it - good or bad, and take the risk."
Whether we'll ever see the Aussie do another shoey on the podium remains to be seen.
Read more about:
Today
Popular on GPBlog
1
Piastri calls on McLaren not to interfere in title battle: 'This year is very different'
729 times read
2
Verstappen and Horner clearly not in agreement on the real problem at Red Bull Racing
689 times read
3
Leclerc threatens McLaren hegemony in Jeddah: 'Don't enjoy targeting a podium"
620 times read
4
Mercedes 'not the right place' for Verstappen, concludes former strategist James Vowles
569 times read