F1 star Daniel Ricciardo has rubbished reports that he signed a giant new salary with Renault, saying the story "upset" him.
According to a report in The Daily Mirror, the 29-year-old signed a substantially improved deal to the one he was on with previous team Red Bull.
However, Renault has not confirmed the figure and Ricciardo himself said the reports were "immature".
"I'll be honest, for sure I get upset … it's personal but I don't like how people can write things without any real knowledge, but write it like it's fact,'' Ricciardo said after the Australian Grand Prix.
"So that kind of bums me out because a lot of people reading that will believe it. I saw a few headlines this week and I didn't like the way it turned out to be honest.
"You are never going to be completely happy with what comes out in the press, but you can't control it all, but it is what it is."
Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul said in an interview in January that the team hadn't paid "stupid money" for Ricciardo, but had made a "considerable financial commitment".
Abiteboul told reporters at the team's pre-season testing that Ricciardo could be the spark needed to ignite the team on the track.
"It's been a huge boost, a huge motivation," he said of the Australian.
"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 the change of team had not altered his approach to the season ahead.
"It doesn't feel strange, [or] weird, [or] awkward," Ricciardo said in Melbourne.
"It feels right, it feels normal and I guess there is still a lot of cameras and attention, so not much has changed," he said.
Ricciardo moved to Renault in the off-season after the relationship between he and Max Verstappen broke down, with the Australian feeling as though he was being edged out by the status of secondary driver.
Editor's note (25/03/2019): An earlier version of this story cited a figure for Daniel Ricciardo’s salary which was widely reported in the UK press, but has since been disputed.
