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This article first appeared in GP Racing magazine.
So Daniel Ricciardo, what do you do now? Your contract with Red Bull comes to an end this year and your team is not only widely understood to be more in love with your team-mate Max Verstappen than it is with you, but it has also just signed an engine deal with Honda.
In the light of Honda's never-ending troubles since it made their Formula 1 return in 2015, that - at first glance - perhaps doesn't seem an appealing prospect, compared with potential openings at both Mercedes and Ferrari. But hold on: this is not 2017 when Honda seemed entirely incapable of getting to grips with the challenge of making a hybrid-era F1 power unit.
It's easy to criticise McLaren's decision to split with Honda last year in the context of the engine company's recent improvement to apparently Renault-equalling performance this year. But this time in 2017, Honda was just beginning its recovery from a nightmare start to the season. And how it's kicked on.
