Ricciardo ready to commit ‘early next week’

Daniel Ricciardo is likely to commit his future to Red Bull as early as “next week” after Mercedes confirmed their line up for next season.

Sticking with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes shut the door on a possible move for Ricciardo while Ferrari are believed to have said no to the Aussie after deciding his wages coupled with Sebastian Vettel’s would be too much.

As such Ricciardo is expected to re-sign with Red Bull.

“It’s getting more realistic, I’d say,” he said.

“The picture with everyone else is starting to be pretty clear, so I’ll focus on [this race] and then I guess probably early next week I’ll try and get everything done.”

Asked if it was his choice to trigger the contract, he told Motorsport.com: “The majority, I would say… The majority.”

Fans and journalists alike may have to wait a bit longer than next week for confirmation of a new deal with Ricciardo saying he’s happy to wait to pen to paper just as long as he goes into the winter break knowing his future has been resolved.

He added: “I’d love to go on break with everything signed and done, but even if I don’t sign it next week for example, as long as I know during the break that I know what I want to do, then I’m happy enough.

“If we put pen to paper, then, we’ll see, we can take some time.”