It was announced last month that Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo would be leaving the team at the end of the season to join Renault.

The 29-year-old revealed in a video about how making the choice to move teams was 'by far the toughest decision' he had made in his racing career.

Ricciardo was wanted by a number of different teams but eventually chose Renault, who he hopes can become a more competitive force over the next few years.

At one stage, the Aussie was quite heavily linked with replacing Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari.

And he believes that if his large fan base had their way, he would be driving for Scuderia in 2019.

"The Italians are nuts in all the right ways," he told reporters ahead of this weekend's Italian GP at Monza.

"It's funny, but even now that I'm signed for the next two years, they are like 'Hey, vieni a Ferrari (come to Ferrari)'. I'm, like, 'I don't know if you guys saw, but..."

Ricciardo continued: "I feel like if the fans voted, things would probably be different.

"I guess they (the Italian Ferrari fans) still want some of my Italian blood in one of their Italian cars. But they're cool. They're full on but in a friendly way."

Ricciardo, who claimed he came to Monza a day early just for the pizza, will face another set of penalties in Monza for the second season running, as Red Bull are eager to take on the latest of engine upgrades from Renault.

The 29-year-old will start from further back on the grid, with the hope of gaining extra points during the next race in Singapore, where the Red Bull driver has a chance of winning.

"It's likely I'll have another one at some point," said Ricciardo.

"If we could get from Singapore through without any penalties then that would be above target for now."

Despite facing a grid penalty in return for Red Bull taking advantage of new Renault upgrades, Ricciardo might not start from as far back on the grid as originally thought.

That's because Renault's Nico Hulkenberg will receive the same punishment on top of the 10-place grid penalty already imposed following a crash that was caused by the German driver at last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

But despite the situation, Ricciardo is still eyeing up a podium position.

"The podium looks so good here. I'm hoping for some crazy race that gets me on the podium," he said.

"I did Eau Rouge (at Spa) without a rear wing on lap one (after a collision) so I think we're just going to take the rear wing off (here)."