Ricciardo expresses 'one last' Verstappen wish

Daniel Ricciardo has expressed hope he gets 'one last chance' to again go head-to-head against Max Verstappen before the end of his F1 career.

Ricciardo and Verstappen were team-mates for almost three seasons from 2016 to 2018 after the Dutchman was promoted from then Toro Rosso to Red Bull in the fifth race of the 2016 campaign.

After scoring a victory in the Monaco Grand Prix in 2018, Ricciardo's seventh with the team at that stage, his form petered out over the remainder of the campaign. By the summer break, it was announced he would be leaving for Renault.

Over the past six years, Ricciardo has rarely scaled the heights of those heady Red Bull days, bar a shock victory with McLaren in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.

In the middle of the current August shutdown, his future again remains unclear following an indifferent season when results have been patchy with RB, with just 12 points to his name, 10 shy of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

As to whether the final 10 grands prix of this season are Ricciardo's last in F1 remains to be seen. It was confirmed on the Monday after the recent Belgian Grand Prix he will at least see out the season with RB. As to what happens for next season, it is open to speculation.
 

Ricciardo taking it 'weekend by weekend'

Speaking in an exclusive interview with RacingNews365, and whether he would love one last chance to go up against Verstappen, he replied: "Yeah. I'm not going to give a diplomatic answer. Of course, I would.

"I know I need to earn it. It's not just going to be handed to me but if I earned it and the chance was there, of course, I'd love to do it. So we'll see."

Ricciardo went into the final two races before the summer break, in Hungary and Belgium, stating they were "really important" to his future. He emerged with reasonable performances and results, notably finishing 10th in the latter.

It is the crazy nature of his situation at present, though, that he has no idea what will now unfold after the summer break.

"Is any of it a reality? I would say no, until it is. But it can change," he said.

"Even after Canada, and there were some things going on that weekend, and I was under some pressure, I had a good weekend.

"All of a sudden, 'Oh yeah, he's back'. But then if you don't perform the next weekend, it's back to square one. So it's weekend by weekend at this rate. Do I want to be great every weekend? Sure."