F1 | Ricciardo on Hulkenberg: “He's a strong guy, he still has space in the sport”

Nico Hulkenberg will leave his place at Renault to Esteban Ocon after the Abu Dhabi race and in this regard, Daniel Ricciardo expressed admiration towards the German driver who will leave Formula 1 after 10 years.

“He's a strong guy – Ricciardo declared to Formula1.com- he certainly still has space in sport if he wants it. He has the ability to do it, I don't fear for him if he doesn't return to Formula 1. He's a pretty shrewd guy, he's quite business savvy, so if he continues to do other things he'll be fine."

The Australian spent just one season with Hulkenberg and admitted that the German made coexistence in the team easier:

“He was easy to work with, he does what he's supposed to do and doesn't bother you. Also I think we both had mutual respect and I think that helps, there was no need to do anything strange. I don't want to say I had him in the past, I didn't have him, but he made my transition to this team quite easy. Before the season, we laughed a little, after the races we went for a drink."

Daniel then spoke about his previous teammates, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen:

“I think I'm an affable guy and yes, I'm a competitor on the track. With Seb there was only respect, with Max yes, we were opponents but I respected his talent, his abilities and I think he did the same. If you have respect, that's the main thing to keep everything together."

Next year the 30-year-old from Perth will have to share the garage with Esteban Ocon and he expects the approach to be exactly the same as with his other former teammates:

“With Esteban, no worries, no fears, no doubts. I respect him as an opponent. I'm sure he respects me, but will he want to come in and settle into the team? Absolutely. Once again there will be that competitive respect, as long as that's the case, I want to beat him, he wants to beat me, we're not fools. We've done this once or twice before, but as long as there's mutual respect that's what we need. We don't even need to become friends but we want mutual respect."