Red Bull put a stop to Ricciardo Le Mans attempt

Daniel Ricciardo says he had options to drive at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2015, but the ongoing strife at his Red Bull Racing team would ultimately prevent him landing a deal.

Following breakout season in 2014 during his first season with the Red Bull Racing team, Ricciardo rising stock seemingly captured attention elsewhere as he was approached to compete at Le Mans for the 24 hour endurance classic.

However, in what turned out to be a tough season for the Red Bull team, Ricciardo says it was 'preferred' that he concentrate on F1 for the time being, though he insists the request 'made sense'.

"Le Mans would be cool. To be honest, I wanted to do it last year," he told the Auto Action publication. "There was maybe some opportunities to do it last year, but it was a bit too much with everything going on [at Red Bull] and the team preferred me to just focus on F1. It makes sense for now.

Fernando Alonso is also known to have been approached about a Le Mans drive before his move to McLaren for 2015, though Force India's Nico Hulkenberg would go on to race and win with Porsche alongside Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber. For Ricciardo though, he says he is happy to wait for his sportscar debut.

"Obviously [Nico] H?lkenberg went and did it and won - I would love to have done it. So that can happen. I guess the beauty of Le Mans is it can happen 10 years from now. It doesn't need to be done today."