Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton says Daniel Ricciardo must be careful not to “alienate” Red Bull when evaluating his Formula 1 future.
Ricciardo is out of contract with Red Bull, where he has been since 2014, at the end of the year, and has been linked with both Mercedes and Ferrari, which currently have vacancies for 2019.
Red Bull has yet to provide Ricciardo with machinery capable of fighting for the world title, with the Australian taking a best of third overall in 2014 and 2016.
Hamilton, though, has cautioned that the cyclical nature of Formula 1 means Ricciardo, who was backed by Red Bull through his junior career, would be well served not to burn any bridges with his current employer.
“I would just say that an important thing is just really to look at the history of drivers and things that drivers have said in the past and try not to alienate the team that you’re in,” said Hamilton.
“It’s all good and while hoping at some stage to experience something new in another team.
“But there’s a lot of people in our teams and it’s really important to keep them encouraged and focused on you as a driver, to help you achieve your goal.
“There are some drivers of recent years who have made bad decisions in upsetting and rocking the boat and that so yeah, he’s [Ricciardo] in a great place still.
“Red Bull, I think, this year can really have a fighting chance to win the championship and the opinion of where you might want to go, if it’s not where he currently is, may shift.”
Discussing his own future, Ricciardo commented: “I feel like I’ve answered already so many like contract talks and we haven’t even got the first race of this year done.
“I’m just going to put all those talks on hold for a while.
“I really, really hope that Lewis is right that we will have a chance to fight for a title.
“That will ultimately make me very happy and then see what happens in… ask me in six months’ time.”
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