Ricciardo wary of "disrespecting" Red Bull in F1 future talks

Ricciardo is yet to commit to the Red Bull outfit beyond the end of the current season, and has been linked to potentially vacant seats at Mercedes and Ferrari for 2019.

A move away from Red Bull would be significant for Ricciardo, who has been backed by the Austrian drinks giant since racing in the Formula Renault Eurocup a decade ago.

Over the Australian GP weekend, Lewis Hamilton warned Ricciardo to tread carefully during his negotiations to avoid alienating his current team, something the Aussie says he was already acutely aware of.

"Sure, I may have more than one option and it's the first time and it's exciting and it's great – but I still want to go about it in the right way," Ricciardo told Motorsport.com.

"I don't want to disrespect anyone or bag anyone. Maybe I do move on, but I'm not going to go and say 'it's because these guys are a bunch of this'.

"Whatever I do, they [Red Bull] have done a lot for my career so it would feel wrong for me to speak badly about them in any kind of scenario.

"I think that's just me, I'm not that guy. I'll speak my mind if I feel like it's what I deserve or whatever, but I'll always remain respectful."

RBR boss Christian Horner conceded that the ongoing grilling from the media is likely to become "annoying", but that his squad was mostly relaxed about Ricciardo's future.

"What is annoying about it is that at every grand prix somebody will be asking him," said Horner.

"But they should in theory also be asking Valtteri [Bottas] and Lewis [Hamilton] and Kimi [Raikkonen].

"It will run its course. We are relatively relaxed because we have got some great options available to us, so we want people... we want drivers that want to be in the team.

"It doesn’t feel right to have to force an issue, or to force a decision."