Renault has unveiled the new car it hopes Daniel Ricciardo can turn into a Grand Prix podium contender, with the Australian saying the move from Red Bull ‘feels right’.

And what a sight to see Ricciardo in the French manufacturer’s yellow and black after five seasons in the distinctive navy blue of Red Bull.

“Renault has a massive history in motorsport, so to be part of the next step of their Formula 1 journey is an exciting challenge,” Ricciardo said the the RS19 launch in Enstone, near Oxford, UK.

“I’m here to do a job on track and drive as fast as possible, but I would like to bring the team energy,” he added.

“I want to put a spring in everyone’s step because that’s part of my job and also my character. I aim to be able to get the team to work that extra bit harder, put in more effort and rally everyone together. I’d like to be a catalyst for positive energy.”

Ricciardo won seven Grands Prix for Red Bull, but decided last August to jump to Renault in the wake of Max Verstappen’s big contract renewal.

It was a frustrating 2018 for Ricciardo, with eight DNFs and ongoing issues with, ironically,  Red Bull’s Renault engine.

“Everything I learnt in 2018 will make me a better version of myself in 2019. The difference will be a more mature person,” he said.

“I have more clarity of where I’m going and I aim for that to be shown with good results on track. I feel a lot of positive pressure and expectation to do good things, but that’s something I’m looking forward to taking on.”

And he has no regrets about the move, knowing that there is plenty of hard work ahead to start challenging for podiums again.

“Even if I really didn’t feel it, I’d probably try and make up something that it did feel right. But, hand on heart, it does feel right,” Ricciardo said.

The process of deciding what to do was stressful but once I’d literally made the call, I was instantly de-stressed and that hasn’t changed.”

Renault Sport Racing managing director Cyril Abiteboul told reporters that Ricciardo could be the spark needed to ignite the team on track.

“It’s been a huge boost, a huge motivation,” he said of the Australian’s arrival alongside German Nico Hulkenberg.

“We’ve put a lot of the right ingredients in three years in terms of people, resources, investment but at some point you need something that is igniting the mixture.

“And that is the sort of thing I’d like to see coming from Daniel.”

Ricciardo said his dream was to do at Renault – world champions in 2005 and 2006 – what five-times world champion Lewis Hamilton has achieved with Mercedes after his well-timed move from McLaren.

“There’s definitely part of that which inspires me. If I was able to do that here I wouldn’t complain,” he said.

Still the West Australian admits he has yet to develop a Frenchman’s taste for frogs’ legs and snails.

“I did eat snails and frogs’ legs and pigs’ feet the other day. That was my induction into being French,” he revealed with a grin, recalling a trip to Paris with food served up by a leading chef.

“Knowing they were things I wouldn’t (normally) eat kind of put me off. So the frogs’ legs, I didn’t know what they were. And when I ate them I was like ‘ah, it’s kind of chicken or fish’. So it wasn’t that bad.

“Then when he told me it was frogs’ legs …”

-with AAP