Ricciardo 'more confident' of new F1 deal before summer break

Daniel Ricciardo says he is feeling "more confident" of signing a new Formula 1 contract and finalising his future before the start of the summer break at the end of this month, but is still yet to put pen to paper on a deal for 2019.

Ricciardo is into the last six months of his Red Bull F1 contract, and stands as the highest-profile driver on the grid not to have a firm deal for next year, leading to links to a number of rival teams, including Ferrari and Mercedes.

However, Red Bull has been clear in its desire to keep Ricciardo in its driver line-up, with team boss Christian Horner saying earlier this week that both parties were keen to continue into 2019 and beyond.

Asked about his future on Thursday ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix, Ricciardo said he was still yet to sign a deal, but admitted he felt he was now closer to agreeing a new deal before the summer break than before.

"I haven’t [signed] yet," Ricciardo said. "It will come. Still no pen on paper.

"I’m more confident it will get done before the August break, so I don’t think you will have to wait much longer."

Ricciardo was reported last month to have been subject to an offer from McLaren, but this does not appear to be a serious option for the Australian. Ferrari's interest is thought to have waned, and while Ricciardo remains an outside option to become Sebastian Vettel's teammate next year, it is looking increasingly likely that Charles Leclerc would be the driver to replace Kimi Raikkonen at Maranello.

Ricciardo had always stressed he would make no call on his future until Red Bull had finalised its engine plans for 2019, with the team announcing a switch to Honda power from next season last month.

Despite Honda's struggles for both reliability and performance for much of its most recent stint in F1, Ricciardo said he was "100 percent" convinced by the decision to change suppliers, stressing it was not driven by emotion or bad blood with existing engine partner Renault.

"Until I was to drive a Honda I wouldn’t know, but I have heard the team out more than once, and they kind of given me the reasons," Ricciardo said.

"The important thing to understand for me why they have done it. It can’t just purely be on emotions, like it has gone to shit with Renault and we are just doing it because we want to change.

"They have done their homework and believe that it is a good thing, not just an emotional decision. They have done what they can to try and encourage me to make it happen."