Daniel Ricciardo is adamant that R𒉰B are no longer merely🐭 a junior team.

They have rename🐬d and rebranded from AlphaTauri, who Ricciardo initially jo𒅌ined midway through last season, who were a sister team of Red Bull.

And althoওugh the lin⛦k to Red Bull remains, Ricciardo points at evidence to prove RB are a major F1 player in their own right.

“It ꦯdoes feel different, and I think it's easy to kind of rebrand it and say we’ve got a new look and with this and that, but your actions have to follow,” he s⛦aid.

Ex-Ferrari chief Laurent Mekies took over as♑ team principal after Franz Tost’s retirement at the end of last year.

Pete🉐r Bayer became CEO, Alan Permane became the racing director and Tim Goss will join as🌃 chief technical officer soon, in major moves to elevate the RB team.

“I think Laurent, Peter, Alan, a lot of guys that have come in ha𓆉vꦦe done that,” Ricciardo said.

“It's not that what was happening in the past with Franz, in that example, wasn't 😼the right thing, but a change sometimes is good.

“You bring in new ideas. They've all spent time in ot♔her teams, organisations, and yeah,♛ it's just a new way of looking at things.

“I think that in itself and their intentions and the way they go about it has made people kind of stand up and say, al🦩right, this isn't a junior team anymore.”

Ricciardo insisted: “We're making big boy decisions, and we're takin🎐g risks and we're setting targets and hig🌸h targets, and ones that we realistically think that we can attain.

“So, it's cool. It's cool to see 🅘it. I'm probably too, in a way, honest in myself that if it felt like a junior team still, I wouldn't feel comfortable here. I'm 35 now.

“So, I think I would feel a bit out of place, and I certainly dꦑon't, so I think that's also a good way to probably comprehend it.”

But, Ricciardo’s future is uncertain.

He missed out on a midseason promotion to Red Bull, who opted to kee🍰p faith in the under-pressure Sergio Perez.

Ricciardo is out of contrac🉐t with RB at the end of this season and hasn’t yet been signed up to a ne💞w one.

In the second half of this F1 ♏season, the veteran Aussie driver has plenty to prove to keep his seat on the grid.