Daniel Ricciardo determined to stay smiling despite Red Bull contract confusion

Ricciardo will take until the summer to weigh up options that potentially include staying with Red Bull, or moving to Ferrari or Mercedes

Daniel Ricciardo is a bubbly figure around the paddock (Getty)

If there’s one thing you can rely on in Formula 1 these days, it’s that Daniel Ricciardo will be smiling.

He was beaming on the top step of the podium here in Baku last year, and last time out, in China, a fortnight ago. Both times, his victories were opportunist’s races, which he won brilliantly through his combination of forceful but clean overtaking, and keen intellect. Not for nothing is he known as the honey badger, an outwardly benign animal that has a killer strike.

“I haven’t had many, I guess, so the wins still feel very special,” he said here this afternoon. “I guess it had been a fairly long time since Baku. A pretty long time between drinks.”

His win in Shanghai helped to expunge the first-lap retirement in the previous race, in Bahrain.

“I just feel that the biggest disappointment in racing is being out of the race at the beginning, y’know, before it’s really started. When you’re out of the race on the first lap or something, it’s tough – because you’ve worked all weekend to get to the Sunday and then it’s over like that.

“After Bahrain, I was obviously relieved to have a race the weekend after and to have a chance to try again. Then Saturday morning, the problem in FP3, that was another kind of head-down moment. But how the race turned out, that was cool. A lot of happy emotions for sure. The highs and lows of the sport can do that to you.”

Like rival Lewis Hamilton, Ricciardo is out of contract at the end of the year. But where Hamilton again stressed here that he is committed to Mercedes and just needs to do the paperwork, Ricciardo will take until the summer to weigh up options that potentially include staying with Red Bull, or moving to replace Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari or Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes.

Like Hamilton at the end of 2012, who left McLaren for Mercedes, he faces having to decide whether he needs to see if the grass might be greener elsewhere.

“It’s a good way of putting it,” he conceded. “I don’t know. The curiosity will not overcome the facts, I guess, in terms of what options I will have, and then which car is ultimately the fastest I can be with. Obviously, that’s really top of my list.

“To answer that differently, I wouldn’t go somewhere else just for a change. If I did move on, obviously I’d want to make sure it was to something I feel would potentially be better.”

Ricciardo has a decision to make at the end of the season (Getty)

Currently his loyalty lies with the team that took him on as a junior in 2008, and he denied reports that he has had discussions with either Ferrari or Mercedes.

“Red Bull really set it all up for me 10 years ago, to make all this happen. There will always be that. At some point you’ve got to weigh-up what does what, but regardless, there will always be something and I’d always show love, nonetheless.

“I’m aware of the other reports, but there hasn’t been anything else. They’re not true, at least up until now, certainly not.”

And as for potentially partnering Hamilton, he added: “I would love to be challenged against the best and Lewis is arguably up there, so for sure that would be a good challenge. I’ve got a good challenge now obviously with Max, and I had Seb, so I don’t want to say it’s just Lewis I’m looking for. But that would be a good challenge.”

The Australian would welcome the chance to drive alongside Hamilton (Getty)

Hamilton, meanwhile, confirmed his intention to stay with Mercedes.

“I am fully committed and have every plan to be with the team in the future,” the world champion said. “We planned to do it after the last race, but we all had a lot on. I’m not waiting, but I’m not in a rush either. But I’ve made it very clear that I want to continue here, so it’s just a matter of finalising the signing.”

He hasn’t won a race since the US GP last October and really needs to do so here to keep his title chances within target of a suddenly dominant Sebastian Vettel, but insisted he is enjoying the new three-way fight.

“Going from ninth to third in Bahrain could be like a win, though of course finishing first feels better. But the harder you have to slog to get there, you always feel better. Then you try to repeat it.

“I hope to get a car this weekend to battle it out. That’s exciting.”

There has been a lot of soul-searching at Mercedes, especially on their strategizing and other operational issues, but he believes the real key lies in maximising the way his new car uses the various Pirelli tyre compounds, which Ferrari already seem able to.

“The tyres can be hard to switch on. Some people take two laps to get them to temperature, others can do it in one. That’s definitely the area in which we need to improve, but there are just some things that you learn faster and others that you don’t. But I think we will be in better shape for this weekend. I think our issues are short-term, finding out where we have been going wrong, but implementing changes can be tricky. I hope we’ve got the right answer here.”

F1 returns to Baku this weekend (Getty)

​Ricciardo admitted he is surprised that Mercedes have yet to win a race this year, but added: “They’re still very competitive and circumstances and maybe not executing the perfect race yet are perhaps why. I think it’s just a matter of time. But it’s good for the sport, to have that little bit of a change for now.

“But I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be a trend. They do have a fast car, certainly a good package. We’ll try to keep holding them out as long as we can. But for sure, I expect them to be strong every weekend.

“In China I sensed an opportunity and made sure I capitalised on that. I think that’s something I really demand from myself and, I guess, expect from myself. A bit like Baku last year. Because we’re not winning every weekend, when you have a sniff of a victory, that’s all the motivation and the hunger I need.”