Ricciardo Confirms Imminent Red Bull Deal, Raikkonen's Ferrari Future Remains Uncertain

Red Bull Racing look like they will become the second team after Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport to confirm their driver lineup for the 2019 season with Daniel Ricciardo nearing a contract extension. Ricciardo revealed after the Hungarian Grand Prix Sunday, a deal with his current employers was imminent.

The Silver Arrows team confirmed new deals for Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas ahead of the German Grand Prix. The duo will be teammates for the third consecutive season after initial doubts over the Finn’s future.

They are the only team on the grid at the moment with a complete driver lineup for the 2019 season with the other nine teams still unsure of their pairings. Red Bull and Ferrari have one driver confirmed — Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel respectively, but the identity of their teammates are still unclear.

Ricciardo, at the start of the season, looked almost certain to leave Red Bull once his contract expires at the end of the current campaign, but as the campaign wore on it became clear that opportunities at another top team was becoming scarce. The Australian’s main criteria was that he should have a car that will help him challenge for the F1 Drivers’ title.

Mercedes opted to re-sign Bottas after initially admitting they were interested in Ricciardo, while Ferrari, the only other option, also pulled out of the race as they were not keen on the financial outlay that came with signing Ricciardo — owing to Vettel’s current wage package.

The Australian driver re-opened talks with Red Bull, who were keen to retain his services, and recently revealed he had held positive talks with the team. He said after the Hungarian Grand Prix a deal with his current employers will be confirmed before or during the Belgian Grand Prix at the iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit on August 26.

“I was just making it up so you guys would stop asking me,” Ricciardo said, as quoted by Planet F1. “It’ll definitely be done by Spa so whether it gets announced over the break or at Spa but it’s just a little bit of fine-tuning.”

“It’s all good. You will hear something soon I’m sure,” the Red Bull Racing driver added.

Once the Red Bull driver lineup is confirmed, all the eyes will be on Ferrari with Kimi Raikkonen’s future still uncertain with the team. The Finn is keen to stay for at least one more season, but reports are suggesting that he could be replaced by Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque driver has impressed in his debut season with Sauber and is part of the Ferrari driver academy. He has scored points in five of the opening 12 races, but it remains to be seen if the Italian team will take a risk and promote an inexperienced but talented driver or retain the services of the experienced Raikkonen to partner Vettel in 2019.

Once the top three teams have made their decision on the driver lineup there could be further announcements from the midfield teams — as a number of drivers’ futures are linked with that of Ricciardo and Raikkonen.