He said his craving to take as much time as necessary over his choice, which will be essential for the following phase of his career, depended on the achievement Lewis Hamilton has had since leaving McLaren toward the finish of 2012 to join Mercedes.
The choice was scrutinized at the time, on the grounds that McLaren were more aggressive than Mercedes, however has paid off liberally as the German monster has ruled F1 and McLaren have slipped back to the midfield.
Ricciardo said: “Lewis pulled the trigger pretty well. Whether he fluked it – he says that he really knew it was going to happen, I don’t know.
“I know that, if you’re saying, those two teams, they’re not quite in that position yet. But could they be? Maybe. The thought of that, it has some appeal.
“I wouldn’t say it’s probably top of my list right now, but I wouldn’t dismiss it, also. Obviously McLaren and Renault aren’t there [out front] today, but maybe they will be there in a year or three years’ time.” Horner said: “The situation with Daniel, I think that there is an intent from both sides to move forward. The first thing was to close the situation with the engine. That has now been done. Daniel understands the rationale, the engineering rationale, behind that.”
