Red Bull pair won't fall out over title battle

Red Bull teammates Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo hope that they will remain friends even if they are both embroiled in a tense battle for the title next year. After a disappointing 2017, the energy drink team will be hoping to return to the front for the upcoming season.

Many regard Red Bull as possessing the strongest line-up on the grid. With eight wins between its current drivers, the pair hopes that their friendship will last if they were head-to-head for F1's greatest prize.

"I hope so," Ricciardo said when questioned on if their friendship could survive a championship battle. "Keep him on my birthday list! We said at the start of 2017 it would be a good problem to have. If we're both fighting at the front and having some battles. If it's ultimately deciding a world title we would happily run with that challenge. So, yeah, we'll see."

Verstappen and Ricciardo have often shown their friendship publicly, posting videos on social media. However, some believe that the friendship could end up with the likes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, who were good friends before falling out over three intense years of fighting for the championship.

"For sure when you fight for the world championship it will get a bit more tense, I think, on the track," recognised Verstappen.  "At the end of the day, you always come back to where you respect each other.

"You have to accept if one guy is faster than the other and I think that's what we can do. When somebody has a good race, we can really say to each other 'well done' and 'you really deserved that'. And I think that's also very important."

Fergal Walsh