Renault expecting fireworks between Ocon and Ricciardo

Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul reckons he will have his work cut out trying to tame the relationship between Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo next season.

Both drivers have a competitive streak which has seen them butt heads with team-mates in the past, and Abiteboul is expecting more of the same as they both strive to become the team’s number one driver.

“[Esteban] will want to beat Daniel,” he told the official Formula 1 site.

“And I know that we will have some challenges from a driver management perspective on the pit wall to manage that. But that’s also a nice problem to have.”

Abiteboul went on to reveal one of the main reasons that the team decided to bring in Ocon to replace Nico Hulkenberg, and it seems that the Frenchman was wary that complacency could creep in if the line-up wasn’t freshened up.

“The problem sometimes in Formula 1 is you have people doing very long careers, and at the end, they are a bit [there] to be in Formula 1 and almost [winning] becomes secondary. I don’t want that at any point in the company,” he continued.

“Don’t get me wrong, when I’m saying that, I’m not talking about Nico… But I do feel that when you are 22, [in the] early days of your career – a career for which you had to fight a lot… it’s a different dynamic. It’s the sort of dynamic that I feel is the right dynamic for our team.

“So if you ask me whether we’ve taken Esteban because Esteban is simply a better driver than Nico, I am absolutely unable to tell you.

“But do I believe that it’s better in the dynamic of our team? Yes, I feel so.”

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