Rumoured Ferrari target Ricciardo reckons Vettel would "not shy away from" reunion as team-mates for first time since 2014 defeat
Tuesday 11 December 2018 14:50, UK
Daniel Ricciardo does not believe Sebastian Vettel would be afraid to take him on as team-mates again.
Ricciardo's future has proved the main off-track talking point since the Australian's scintillating win at the Chinese GP, with just eight months to run on his current deal at Red Bull.
Ricciardo has insisted he has only so far spoken to his current team about 2019 and denied reports he had agreed any form of pre-contract negotiating agreement with Ferrari.
But any concrete interest from Ferrari would raise the tantalising prospect of Ricciardo teaming up again with Vettel, a duel the Australian won comfortably when they were team-mates for a single season at Red Bull in 2014.
It proved to be Vettel's final season at Red Bull before he left for Ferrari but Ricciardo does not agree with suggestions that the four-time world champion would shy away from a reunion.
"From a personal point of view, I don't think Seb is scared,' Ricciardo told PA.
"If I know Sebastian like I think I do, he is 100 per cent a competitor, and lives and breathes F1 more than a lot of us.
"That competitor in him would love a chance for redemption. He would not shy away from it. Some people would say 'he beat you in 2014, Seb, don't go up against him again', but the competitor in him will try and wipe that slate clean."
Ricciardo is the only team-mate to have outscored Vettel over a single season in the German's 11 years on the F1 grid.
In 2014, the Australian out-qualified the then reigning world champion 11-8 and scored 71 more points, including three wins to Vettel's none.
Since joining Ferrari for the following season, Vettel has been partnered by Kimi Raikkonen, who is widely viewed as playing a supporting role to the German driver.
Raikkonen's own deal expires at the end of the year, while Vettel is contracted until 2020.
