Daniel Ricciardo says he's still excited about moving to Renault in 2019 despite all the Renault-related issues he has faced during the season.
Ricciardo's most recent retirement at the U.S. Grand Prix was as a result of a sudden loss of power from his Renault power unit -- the same issue which saw him retire from the Bahrain Grand Prix in April. The Australian has retired from five of the last ten grands prix compared to Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen, who has just one DNF to his name in the same period.
Following the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ricciardo announced his shock switch to the Renault works team to partner Nico Hulkenberg for 2019. The French manufacturer currently sits 231 points behind Red Bull and hasn't scored a podium finish since returning to the sport as a factory team in 2016.
Despite the current disparity between the two teams and the plethora of issues that have hampered Ricciardo's season, he has no regrets over leaving Red Bull for Renault.
"I mean, no,'' he replied when asked if he's had second thoughts over his Renault switch. "For sure I'm aware there's work to do, that's the truth, but I knew that as well when I signed. I think I'm still more excited than not, just about having a fresh environment and a change. I mean, hopefully we get a good run the next few races, otherwise these guys will probably be sick of me as well losing my shit So probably for everyone it's a good thing I move on.''
Ricciardo believes his run of poor reliability is down to ''mechanical coincidences'' but admits there's no explanation to why it keeps happening to his car in particular.
"Yeah, I mean for sure we had the problem with the battery and all that and the malfunction, but I don't think it's because one of my mechanics isn't doing something up correctly; it's just mechanical coincidences, which is part of the reason why I really sometimes don't like this sport. I knew it from a young age. I remember I was nine years old and I first started racing in go karts -- quick story -- and one weekend just literally it wouldn't run. It was misfiring and misfiring. We changed the fuel hose and everything.
"All these little things we tried, nothing worked. We went back the next weekend -- it was just a practice day -- and we hadn't touched the go kart, we threw it in the van. Put it out, went on track and it was fine. Nothing was wrong with it. From that day on I knew that motor vehicles are weird. I'll say weird -- there are many more words I could use, but very weird and strange. That's all it is. Sometimes they don't work and sometimes there's no explanation. But I think there was an explanation Sunday, but why it keeps happening, I don't think there's an explanation.''