The news that Daniel Ricciardo has signed for Renault for 2019 was the stuff of ‘silly season’ rumours only days ago, and has initiated the game of musical chairs that often gets underway during the summer break.

Ricciardo’s decision to leave Red Bull, one of the three dominating teams in recent years, for Renault -currently the “best of the rest”, but with long-standing prestige- is, on the face of it, a curious one. But the Red Bull cars have been dogged with reliability issues this season, and Ricciardo has been forced to retire during a third of the races so far. It’s not hard to see why the lure of a works team with the all-important cohesion of design and engineering in-house was so strong.

“The most difficult decision” of his career according to Ricciardo, in making the jump to Renault, he is clearly intent on a future championship which he judged was less likely with Red Bull. We’re used to seeing Ricciardo as the friendly face of Formula one, the pluckiness of this cheerful underdog has charmed fans on the track, but now he’s shown his mettle off the track, revealing a steely determination to succeed, and a willingness to speculate to get there. Well, why not? It paid off for Lewis Hamilton in 2013 when he left McClaren for Mercedes.

While Renault has recently been in the news for being blamed by Christian Horner for Red Bull’s reliability issues as engine supplier, it’s perhaps unfair to jump to conclusions about this when considering Renault’s own pretty consistent results with the same engine, as the problem could be more to do with the constructor instead. Renault’s own cars’ engine has only failed once this year and this perhaps indicates an integration issue, rather than a fundamental engine defect.

Renault must be congratulating themselves on having secured a hugely likeable driver who will be veritable gold dust for their target retail market. But what is really exciting for the team is, not only have they bagged a driver with real potential for winning a world championship, in April they welcomed Marcin Budkowski, former head of the FIA’s technical department, as Executive Director. Don’t be fooled by the non-technical sounding job title: there can be no doubt that Budkowski’s garnered knowledge of F1 innovation from his time at the FIA will be a boon to Renault’s aspirations to compete seriously with the front-runners, and it’s worth bearing in mind the outrage this news sparked amongst Renault’s competitors, because they know it.

Renault’s taking up of the gauntlet, along with the takeover of soon-to-be-rebranded Force India by Lawrence Stroll, Lance Stroll’s billionaire father, could be just the shake-up Formula One really needs. It has, after all, felt somewhat stale and predictable of late, with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull leading the procession. Chase Carey, CEO of Forma One, has already intimated a desire to open up the competition and create a more level playing field. It would be thrilling to see the championship become more of a free-for-all in future, instead of the three-horse race it has been in recent years. With Carey’s intentions to liven up the sport and grow the fan base, is it possible he had a surreptitious hand in this double coup for Renault? After all, Intervening on the quiet for the benefit of the show was something his predecessor, Bernie Ecclestone, was famous for. Who knows how it came about, but one thing is certain: the 2019 season promises to be an exciting one.