Brazilian Grand Prix 2018: Renault’s rivalry with Red Bull ahead of Daniel Ricciardo move heats up after cheeky Max Verstappen dig

The fallout from this season’s messy divorce between Red Bull and Renault has heated up that little bit more ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, thanks to a cheeky dig at Max Verstappen.The two teams were already enduring a rocky end to their 12-season relationship with Red Bull deciding to go with a Honda engine from 2019 because of the reliability issues they’ve experienced this year.

Image: Getty Images

And it soured even more when the chief victim of those reliability issues, Daniel Ricciardo, announced he was jumping ship from Red Bull to Renault when his contract expired at the end of the 2018 season.

BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX:

'I'm seeing out the season'

‘I’m seeing out the season’

Since that announcement, the relationship has got worse, with Red Bull chiefs publicly stating how Ricciardo is taking a step backwards and in for two more years of frustration at his new team.

However, now Renault have taken a little swipe back, this time at Ricciardo’s soon-to-be former teammate Verstappen.

In a blog post on their website ahead of this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix, they wrote: “A party atmosphere is one similarity between Mexico and Brazil, with another being the sheer volume of people living in the two host cities. With a combined population of 20 million, which may or may not be equivalent to the number of times Max Verstappen has moaned about something this season, these two back-to-backs are physically HUGE.”

Renault Sport posted the blog ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.Source: FOX SPORTS

With Red Bull set for a traditionally tough weekend in Brazil, could Renault pull another one over them by building on a couple of strong performances over the last few Grand Prix weekends.

Source: Fox Sports