Daniel Ricciardo has emphasised that he has not spoken to any team aside from Red Bull over his future, rubbishing reports he has penned a pre-contract option with Ferrari.
Ricciardo has been under Red Bull’s umbrella throughout his single-seater career and has raced for the organisation’s senior Formula 1 team since 2014, but is out of contract at the end of the year.
Ferrari and Mercedes both have vacancies for 2019, but Ricciardo says he has so far only held discussions with his current team.
Feature: The 2019 options facing Ricciardo
“So I’ve only had talks with Red Bull,” Ricciardo said ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
“I mean we’ve even [had talks] already last year, we’ve been pretty open with each other, through the media as well [they’ve said] they’re interested in keeping me.
“We’ve had some talks regarding that obviously, I’m aware of other reports, but there hasn’t been anything else, they’re not true.”
When asked to clarify those comments, in light of recent reports suggesting Ricciardo has signed a pre-contract agreement with Ferrari, he said: “That’s not true. I can say that.”
Ricciardo added that any potential “curiosity” of life outside of the Red Bull scheme will not be prioritised over where he feels provides his best chance of fighting for the title.
“I think the curiosity will not overcome the facts, I guess, in terms of what options I will have, and which car is ultimately the fastest I can be with, that’s top of my list,” he said.
“I wouldn’t just go somewhere else for a change, if I did move on it’ll be something that’ll potentially be better.
“There’ll always be a bit of [loyalty to Red Bull] for sure. The start of it, in 2008, it’s been 10 years since I was in the Red Bull Junior Team.
“It’s a long time, they really set it all up for me to make it happen, there’ll always be that, at some point you’ve got to weigh up what does what, but regardless there’ll always be something. I’ll always show love nonetheless!”
