Daniel Ricciardo says he’s excited to be going up against two “young little ankle-biters” in Formula 1 this year and next.
Ricciardo will race alongside Esteban Ocon at Renault when the 2020 season finally gets underway next month, and expects the Frenchman will be “chomping at the bit” to get racing, after he took a year out in ’19.
“I haven’t raced him as a team-mate yet,” Ricciardo said in the F1 Nation podcast. “I’m still pretty excited to have these kind of young little ankle-biters coming at me.
“I’m excited to see how he goes. We say [drivers will be] rusty. He’s the most rusty having all of last year off as well. So I know he’s chomping at the bit to get going.”
Ocon had a fiery relationship with former Racing Point team-mate Sergio Perez as the pair made contact on several occasions during their time together, but Ocon was eventually forced out when Lance Stroll’s father, Lawrence, took over ownership of the outfit.
Whilst Ricciardo will spend just one short season as Ocon’s team-mate, he’ll face a similar scenario in ’21 when he joins McLaren as Lando Norris’ team-mate.
The Aussie fully expects Norris to push him and make him perform better, as Max Verstappen did at Red Bull.
“Obviously, I felt that [push] with Max at Red Bull – I feel like we both lifted each other by pushing each other by being the competitors that we are. I would obviously love that and expect that from Lando, and I say I expect it because he had a really strong rookie year.
“I’m pretty sure he out-qualified Carlos [Sainz]. That’s quite a statement for his rookie year. So I expect him to be there and I think we’re both pretty easy-going once the helmet’s off.
“I think people probably have a bit of fun with that but I’m sure we’re going to see some good competition.”
In the same interview Ricciardo explained his motivation to quit Renault for McLaren, a decision he said was harder to make than when he left Red Bull, despite it being a winning outfit.
