Daniel Ricciardo says he is closing in on a new Red Bull contract now that it has become clear Mercedes and Ferrari will not offer him a deal for 2019.
After spending all of his F1 career to date under the Red Bull driver programme, Ricciardo is out of contract at the end of this season.
At the start of the year he was linked with Ferrari but it is now looking increasingly likely that the Italian team will choose Sauber driver Charles Leclerc to partner Sebastian Vettel in 2019. Mercedes was also rumoured as a potential destination for Ricciardo, but Valtteri Bottas is expected to be retained once Lewis Hamilton completes a new deal with the team in the coming weeks.