Key moment for Ricciardo: 'Otherwise he would have stayed at Red Bull'

Daniel Ricciardo decided at the end of 2018 to swap Red Bull Racing for an adventure at Renault. According to Martin Brundle, that year's Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a major reason for the Australian to leave the team.

For years Ricciardo managed to compete at the top of Formula 1, but the arrival of Max Verstappen in 2016 changed the situation. The Dutchman proved to be very talented and gave Ricciardo an extra challenge in his car, with which he struggled. Moreover, he noticed that the team was slowly favouring Verstappen, a situation that did not sit well with him.

However, the race in Baku was a key moment according to Brundle. Where Ricciardo stayed behind Verstappen for a long time, both drivers also collided with each other. Afterwards Ricciardo noticed that his team put the blame at least as much on him as on Verstappen, which he felt was unjustified.

"Perhaps that was the moment when he realised they could only really love one driver and it was going to be Max going forward," judges Brundle in conversation with Fox Sports. "In a way I’m sure, if you could rewind, he probably would have stayed at Red Bull and made it work — but it’s really hard when you know you’re not the favoured one."