Christian Horner throws out Red Bull invitation to Daniel Ricciardo

Christian Horner says Red Bull is “very open” to the idea of Daniel Ricciardo carrying out work on their behalf.

Ricciardo’s driving career with Red Bull has come to an end, with the Australian dropped from the VCARB driver line-up in favour of Liam Lawson – bringing to an end any possibility of him returning to the Red Bull Racing squad.

Christian Horner: Daniel Ricciardo would be very welcome

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

The Australian has withdrawn to his personal life following his last race at the Singapore Grand Prix, while he mulls over what to do next.

The door has been left open for him to continue working with the Red Bull brand and organisation, having spent most of his top-level racing career enjoying the backing of the energy drinks company.

The exact nature of what he might do isn’t yet clear – the most likely scenarios are ambassadorial, including driving duties for marketing and promotional events such as Red Bull’s various global showruns and stunts (which David Coulthard continues to frequently do, almost two decades on from his racing career).

“He grew up with Red Bull, and he’s taking some time out at the moment,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told media, including PlanetF1.com, after the United States Grand Prix.

“But he’d be very welcome, any time, to be part of whatever role he elected to want to get involved in.

“He has a massive profile, and you’re a long time retired so, if he chose to want to get involved in some activities in the US in any way, it’s something we’d be very open to.”

Last week, Ricciardo was spotted with friends on an Instagram post, wearing a hat that referenced him being “retired”. While this may have suggested Ricciardo has closed the door on a motorsport career entirely, PlanetF1.com understands the hat was merely intended as a bit of fun amongst friends and not a casual declaration.

Asked about the hat, Horner smiled and said: “That’s his decision that he wanted to make.”

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Daniel Ricciardo to hit up Australian Supercars?

While Red Bull patiently wait for Ricciardo to decide what he wants to do, what is certain is that Ricciardo does have the option of continuing life as a racing driver.

The high-profile Australian series Supercars has said that “everyone” would welcome Ricciardo into the championship “with open arms”, as series chief Shane Howard told News Corp: “Would we like to see Daniel Ricciardo in a Supercar? 100 per cent.

“Just imagine if he could be in one of our cars and race in a new street race in Perth, that would be something special wouldn’t it?

“It would be absolutely massive. He is such an incredible driver and such an incredible personality and people just absolutely love him.

“Imagine him racing at Bathurst, wow. That would be very cool indeed.”

Howard intends to have the conversation with Ricciardo’s management team about the possibility.

“At an appropriate time we would reach out to Daniel and his management,” he continued. “Obviously he has got a lot going on and we respect that.

“Blake Friend in his management team used to work for us (at Supercars). At the right time, we would reach out, but we would certainly like to have him in one of our cars, 100 per cent we would.”

But whether Ricciardo will be interested is another story, as he told the media in Singapore that he’s concerned that, having been a Formula 1 driver, racing anywhere else would be lacking.

“No disrespect to other series — I’m a fan of NASCAR and a lot of other forms of motorsport — but because I’ve been there and experienced the highest of highs, will I get true fulfillment doing something else?” he said.

“No guarantee I’ll be awesome doing something else. Is that actually going to scratch the itch and give me what I want? I don’t know.

“I’d probably say more no than yes,” he said.

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