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Horner confident Ricciardo will stay at Red Bull

10:21, 04 Jul 2018

byNicolás Quarles van Ufford

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is confident that his driver Daniel Ricciardo will stay at the Austrian team, as the Aussie will probably not find a better team on the market for next season onwards.

Red Bull will, as has been reported, partner up with Honda from next season onwards for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Many people have their doubts about this, but Dr Helmut Marko, Red Bull's advisor, thinks that this could mean Red Bull could match Ferrari's power next season.

As for Ricciardo, he had previously stated that he wanted to test the waters of free agency to see what's out there for him, as the Aussie is really itching to be competing for a championship. Red Bull has been good at times, but a consistent championship run has never been on the cards for him.

As Mercedes are very likely to re-sign both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari have reportedly already signed up Charles Leclerc to replace Kimi Raikkonen, there aren't many good options out there anymore for Ricciardo, which is why Horner thinks that he'll stay put at the Bulls.

“We’ve now got to the point where there is a desire from both sides to continue the relationship,” Horner said according to Speed Cafe.

“So it’s just a matter of now really going through the detail and coming to a conclusion which will certainly be done prior to the summer (August) break.

“He’s impatient to try and challenge for a world title so I think he would have had his head turned in the event of a Mercedes or a Ferrari offer but I think those two teams look pretty set where they are.

“Hopefully, the rest of it becomes a formality, unless Lewis announces his retirement at the British Grand Prix this weekend," the Brit jokingly concluded.