Red Bull strike back in ongoing Renault feud with Daniel Ricciardo shock

The Red Bull-Renault rivalry has shown no signs of easing up with Aussie star Daniel Ricciardo again at the centre of the spat.

No hard feelings between Red Bull and Ricciardo — but plenty with Renault.

Australian F1 star Daniel Ricciardo has again been dragged into the ongoing feud between Red Bull and Renault after the pair again traded barbs.

Ricciardo was one of the big losers from Red Bull’s engine failures in 2018, suffering eight retirements, with the Renault power units being blamed.

But then he shocked the world, moving to Renault for 2019 and 2020.

It continued to fuel the feud between the teams as Red Bull severed their ties with Renault and switched to Honda engines for the 2019 season and beyond.

Shots fired back and forth were a highlight of the end of last season, right up until Ricciardo’s final day behind the wheel at Red Bull.

But any thoughts of the feud being over were premature.

The testy relationship between Red Bull boss Christian Horner and his Renault counterpart Cyril Abiteboul has continued this week with some tasty accusations being levelled by both sides.

Last week, Abiteboul reminded Red Bull just how important Renault’s contribution was during Sebastian Vettel’s run of four straight titles from 2010-2013.

“We were extremely happy and Renault has contributed to making Red Bull what it is today by winning four championships in a row,” Abiteboul told Autosport.com.

“From a financial perspective with sponsors, from a technology perspective with talent, recruitment — Red Bull is what it is today thanks also to Renault.”

Horner won’t need any more shade to recover from that burn.

Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t had the happiest of starts to life at Renault.

Abiteboul continued with tongue-in-cheek praise of Red Bull’s “communication strategy” after Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey admitted at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that his team was using the media to try to force Renault to improve.

But Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko stuck back, dragging open the wound of Ricciardo’s departure to hit back at Renault.

While Renault were talking a big game in the pre-season, Ricciardo has finished just one of four races so far this season — although two have been because of his own error.

Marko hinted that Renault had made some false promises to entice Ricciardo to move to the French outfit.

“Renault is good at (showing data),” Marko told Motorsport-Total.

“They showed us charts over and over again, showing the engine will be massive next year. He (Ricciardo) will have just believed it.”

There is absolutely no love lost in this war.

Marko also opened up on his shock at Ricciardo’s decision to go to the team seen as “the best of the rest” rather than one of the big three.

The Aussie 29-year-old was expected to move to Mercedes, Ferrari or tread water with a one-year extension at Red Bull.

“The story should read that he decides in the summer, whether he goes to Ferrari or Mercedes or remains with Red Bull,” Marko explained.

Not where anyone expected Ricciardo to be.

“That turned out to be very different from what he imagined, and very different from what the Netflix people wanted it to be.

“For me, it looked like everything was fine. We improved the offer and discussed everything he thought was in need of improvement, including personal sponsors he had from Australia, and that was a relatively long conversation. After the Hungary test, I already guessed that it would be no more.”

All F1 races, practice and qualifying are live and on demand on Kayo Sports. Kayo has more than 50 sports for streaming from just $25 per month for two devices at once. Click here to trial it free for 14 days.

With just two points finishes from eight starts — Ricciardo’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg claimed points in Australia before two retirements and a 14th place finish in Baku — Abiteboul accepts the start to the season hasn’t been acceptable for the French outfit.

It’s been a problem for Renault since the 2014 season when the F1 introduced V6 hybrid engines.

“It’s fair to say that it’s not exactly the start of the season we were willing to have, that we’ve been working for,” he said.

“[But] it is important to also take a bit of distance of the emotions and of the constant drama we are living in F1.”