Daniel Ricciardo reveals Max Verstappen 'obliteration' risk at Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo has conceded that his decision to leave Red Bull is the biggest 'what if' moment of his F1 career, whilst also admitting there was a chance Max Verstappen would have "obliterated" him had he stayed.

The Australian driver, whose F1 tenure came to a close following his unceremonious axing from Racing Bulls after the Singapore Grand Prix in 2024, was team-mate to the four-time drivers' champion at the Milton Keynes-based squad before leaving for Renault.

From there, he moved on to McLaren, where his career started to falter. Whilst he did manage to take a final win for the papaya team at Monza in 2021, he was routinely outclassed by Lando Norris and looked a pale imitation of the driver who claimed seven victories for Red Bull.

Now happily retired and enjoying an ambassadorial role with Ford, the 36-year-old reflected on his time with the six-time constructors' champions.

Ricciardo questioned whether Verstappen would have ended up destroying him in their intra-team battle had he not sought out pastures new.

"The most obvious 'what if?' or whatever, especially for people on the outside, is: 'OK, what if you stayed at Red Bull after 2018?'" he told The Athletic.

"That's one where I'm like, I don't know — I don't know if that was the right decision. Certainly, there was a bit of emotion in that, but there were reasons I didn't think it was going to work.

"There's also a scenario where Max just obliterated me as the years went on, and maybe my career ended even quicker. I don't know."

Rallying agains the narrative

Ricciardo walked away from Red Bull as Verstappen's star was on the rise, something which has contributed to the perception that he was unwilling to go toe-to-toe with the Dutchman. 

However, before he left, the pair were near-equal sparring partners in their almost three seasons as team-mates. 

"At the time, I was competitive with Max, and we were pushing each other really well," the nine-time grand prix winner said.

"It's just hard. I'm like, sure, maybe I would have still won more races than I ended up winning. But I can't deny that Max is… Max."

Rejecting the idea that he shied away from the battle with Verstappen, Ricciardo added: "At the time, some of the narrative was all like, 'Am I kind of running from the fight?' I don't think I was running from the fight.

"I was just concerned with how things were going to go moving forward. I was more concerned about the team dynamic more than running from a fight."