'Someone said no': Ricciardo's stunning claim about Ferrari move

Daniel Ricciardo has revealed just how close he got to signing with Ferrari, before the move was sensationally vetoed.

The Aussie superstar is heading to Renault in 2019, but it was very nearly Ferrari who snared his signature.

With Kimi Raikkonen’s retirement opening up a spot beside Sebastian Vettel, it looked to be a perfect fit.

But it fell through at the last minute, and Ricciardo has now claimed someone inside Ferrari vetoed the move.

The initial speculation was the Ricciardo wanted too much money, a claim the Aussie has bristled at.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Who said I’d asked for too much money?” he told Automoto.

“Evidently someone said no when I arrived.

“Who? I’d like to know, but maybe I have an idea…”

Young gun Charles Leclerc is the man who got the nod to drive alongside Vettel in 2019.

“I talked and discussed, but you see that they had already made arrangements with Leclerc, so mine fell through,” Ricciardo said.

“That works well and good luck to them as far as I’m concerned.”

However Ricciardo also hinted that a future move to Ferrari wouldn’t be out of the question.

“I hope to still have some time in F1 and who knows that in the future there are not opportunities to meet again.”

Ricciardo said goodbye to the Red Bull Formula 1 team on Friday with his final official visit to the team’s factory in Milton Keynes.

Ricciardo moves away from Red Bull after joining its junior program ahead of the 2008 season, and having raced for its senior F1 team since 2014.