Emotional Daniel Ricciardo admits amid reports of Red Bull replacement: “It could be that”

An emotional Daniel Ricciardo admitted that there was a “realistic chance” that he would not be in the VCARB cockpit at the next race in Austin.

The Australian set the fastest lap of the race towards the end of the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday and was voted Driver of the Day by fans, even though he and the team as a whole struggled with speed.

Daniel Ricciardo admits “realistic chance” of losing his Formula 1 seat after the Singapore GP

Rumours about Ricciardo's future at VCARB have been circulating all weekend, with Liam Lawson already waiting for a possible chance to impress this season.

Although Ricciardo trails Yuki Tsunoda in the Drivers' Championship by 22 points to 12 so far this season, he wanted to use this season as an opportunity to bid for a return to Red Bull after leaving the team at the end of 2018.

In a post-race interview with Formula1.com's Lawrence Barretto, the eight-time Grand Prix winner could be seen holding back his emotions, saying he wanted to “enjoy the moment” as he took in the surroundings of his cockpit.

He also admitted to Sky F1 that his hoped-for return to Red Bull “may not have been the fairytale ending”. However, when asked about his future prospects, he expressed a mixture of pride in his career so far and readiness in the event that he is asked to retire.

“There is, of course, a realistic chance that it won't happen,” he admitted to reporters in Singapore when asked if he would be in the car in Austin.

“I think it was obviously a very race-by-race situation with Red Bull, for all of us, in some ways of course Checo [Perez] as well as.

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“Sometimes it feels like it goes one way, then the other. Obviously there was a lot of focus on this weekend and I would have liked a better weekend and who knows if that would have changed anything or if the decision had already been made before the weekend, you know what I mean?

“So I’m obviously prepared for it and that’s why I tried to make a few things clear to myself over the weekend and also to make myself clear why I came back into the sport.

“You know, sometimes you have to see the bigger picture, and I've always said that I don't want to just be the guy who stands here and fights for a point every now and then, which is kind of how it went this year.

“But this year, of course, the goal was to try to do well enough to come back to Red Bull and of course fight for wins again and see if I still have what it takes.

“Yeah, I feel like I'm obviously not completely happy with that. So I think to myself, 'Okay, what else am I fighting for here? What else is going to give me fulfillment?'

“I was also a young driver and at some point I no longer want to just take up space, but of course you also have to be selfish.

“But I think that if I am not able to fight with Red Bull at the front, then I have to ask myself, as I said, 'Why am I even staying on the starting grid?' I have made my peace with that too.”

“I tried to enjoy it, of course, you know, a bit like the end of 1922 with McLaren.

“I knew this might be my last race, so I tried to enjoy it.

“I think I'm a lot happier in the sport now than I was then. If that's the case, then I have a bit more peace now and am proud of my career.

“Of course I tried to be world champion. I tried to be the best in the world at something. I think that's a big task that we set ourselves and obviously some do it and some don't.

“If I didn't quite get the result I wanted in the end, I can't be too hard on myself. I'm happy with my performance and I think that's why there's no sadness or a feeling of regret or what-could-have-been. I think I did my best.”

Read more: Max Verstappen's “Thank you Daniel” message after big title advantage in potentially last F1 battle