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Ricciardo not banking on Red Bull seat

A report in Germany suggested Daniel Ricciardo would be named as Mark Webber's replacement in Spa © Sutton Images

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Daniel Ricciardo says he is not banking on getting the vacant seat at Red Bull despite Kimi Raikkonen's manager saying talks have ended.

Raikkonen and Ricciardo were named as the two main candidates to replace Mark Webber at the end of 2013, but Raikkonen's manager Steve Robertson said earlier this week that talks had ended unsuccessfully some time ago. Speaking before Christian Horner confirmed that he wasn't ruling out any driver, Ricciardo said he wasn't counting himself as the clear favourite for the seat.

"I think I've learned that until something is signed, sealed, delivered then nothing is ever concrete," Ricciardo said. "Particularly in this environment, or any elite sport or big business. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. Obviously there's still my team-mate Jean-Eric who as far as I'm concerned isn't out of the picture, and there's a lot of other F1 drivers on the grid with pretty good credentials. As I said, until something's done I'm not going to start celebrating or getting my hopes up."

Ricciardo also said that there was no contact from Red Bull during the mid-season break but that he wasn't overly excited by reports that had been surfacing.

"It didn't come. Obviously there's a bit of excitement around; maybe everyone gets a bit bored on the August break - I get bored, don't worry - so nothing yet, nothing further to say from what I knew in Budapest. Until it comes from someone over that side, whichever decision they make, as far as I know I'm still here for this year and don't know anything about next year."

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