Red Bull has made clear yet again that it wants Daniel Ricciardo to stay at the team.
While Max Verstappen struggles, Australian Ricciardo is in top form but out of contract at the end of 2018.
"He's made himself a few million more expensive," 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg smiled after Ricciardo won at Monaco.
Lewis Hamilton agreed, saying: "I hear he earns less (than Verstappen), even though he does more. He's currently the leader at Red Bull."
Red Bull boss Christian Horner said the team wants Ricciardo to stay.
"Daniel knows the capabilities of the team, he sees how well the team suits him, and I hope that in the next few months we will settle all the issues," he said.
However, Ricciardo remains linked with a potential switch to Mercedes or Ferrari.
Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko told Auto Bild after Monaco: "For us, nothing changes.
"We want to keep him and Daniel knows it. Why should he go to Mercedes or Ferrari? To be a number 2 driver?
"With us, Daniel has equal opportunities with the same equipment and no team orders. I think he knows that too," he added.
Marko said he wants to get a new contract signed "as soon as possible".
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Performance on track ... DR #1
Team Representative ... DR #1
F1 Representative ... DR #1
Daniel deserves more than Max, but Dr.Helmuttonhead thinks he is the reason for Daniel's success. In all I think Daniel will get what He wants, keeping in mind, he is not a greedy guy.
"While Max Verstappen struggles, Australian Ricciardo is in top form"
Who is struggling with his "form"? As far as I remember it was Ricciardo who was outqualified and couldn't find consistent race pace during the last "normal" GP (in Spain).
PS. A driver like Hamilton who won all his championships because of the best car and a number 2 teammate, shouldn't be vocal about paychecks. He hasn't done very much to earn it.
@blade - you are right, I have a short memory, but I still remember some parts of the 2008 season. Hamilton and Massa were both sitting in cars capable of winning the championship. Both underperformed and in my opinion both didn't deserve to win the title that year, because of mistakes they made.
Hamiltons win in Monaco was pure luck after or due to a mistake. His pitlane crash in Canada is already legendary. Massa spun twice? in two races at the beginning, his drive in Silverstone was embarrassing. A driver in a BMW should have won that year, if his team wouldn't stop the development of the car. This was the car that was no where near McLaren and Ferrari.
Helmut knows what he is doing. Everybody thought he was wrong replacing Max and Danil but after just one race no one was laughing.
There is no doubt Ricciardo is number 2 at Red Bull, Azerbaijan proved that with Ricciardo being pitted first putting him back behind Verstappen after he'd passed Verstappen on track....... After Red Bull's brilliant strategy in China, there's no doubt they knew the Azerbaijan race favoured the overcut.
Ricciardo would be better off taking his chances as a number 2 in a factory team as opposed to staying with Red Bull as a number 2, particularly when Marko's boy can still become youngest ever World Champion in 2019.
While I think it would great for Ricardo to take Bottas's seat at Mercedes there not a chance of it happening. Hamilton would and probably could veto it and I don't think Toto Wolf is keen to threaten the stability of tyhe team or show bad faith to Bottas. Also Bottas is only perceived as the number two driver because of his results. When Nico won the World Championship he wasn't held back by the team at all.
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Context :
Performance on track ... DR #1
Team Representative ... DR #1
F1 Representative ... DR #1
Daniel deserves more than Max, but Dr.Helmuttonhead thinks he is the reason for Daniel's success. In all I think Daniel will get what He wants, keeping in mind, he is not a greedy guy.