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Why Ricciardo should trust in Honda

Daniel Ricciardo has shown impressive form in 2018: winning against the odds, frequently sticking it to his feted team-mate and regularly proving that he's an ace in search of a true world title shot. But he doesn't quite seem to be able to get his bum in the right seat at the right time, despite flirtations with Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault. Yet his F1 stock has never been higher, so he's ripe for a move from the Red Bull team that made him... Or maybe, just maybe, he'd be best off staying put as Honda finally start to get their act together. Here, we analyse the options

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.