2016 has been bittersweet for Ricciardo so far.

A campaign that promised so much before the F1 season got underway this year has become increasingly frustrating for the Aussie star, who is developing a reputation as the “nearly-man” of 2016.

On the back of a fourth placed finish at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona last weekend — his fourth such finish in five races — the 26-year-old was clearly upset. He accused his Red Bull team of “throwing the win away” when they switched him to a three pit-stop strategy on lap 28 while leading the race.

He believed this cost him a podium spot after Mercedes stars Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg crashed out early, and was reportedly “ropeable” with his team.

Instead, he was forced to watch on as 18-year-old teammate Max Verstappen — recently promoted from Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso in place of the out-of-favour Daniil Kvyat — claimed his first ever win on the F1 circuit.

It was tough to take for Ricciardo, who is used to being top dog at Red Bull, but due to a mixture of bad luck and questionable decision-making, isn’t making his presence felt like he knows he can.

Speaking in a video tweeted by Red Bull Racing, Ricciardo’s frustration was evident for all to see.

“The best part of the weekend was qualifying, I thought it was one of the best laps of my career,” Ricciardo said of his ability to lock up third place on the starting grid.

“The worst part of the weekend was the outcome of the race. I thought we were on for a win and ended up with fourth. It’s my fourth fourth for the season out of five races.

“The first two races I was happy with fourth, now I’m definitely over it.”

He’s smiling on the outside, but fuming on the inside.Source:Getty Images

After a disastrous 2015 in which he finished eighth — one spot behind then-teammate Kvyat — and Red Bull failed to secure a podium finish for the first time since 2008, there were signs that 2016 was going to be a much brighter year for Ricciardo and his Christian Horner-led outfit.

He qualified eighth-fastest and came fourth in the season opening grand prix in Melbourne, before backing that up with another fourth-placed finish in Bahrain.

He was primed to challenge for a podium spot at the Chinese Grand Prix after qualifying on the front row of the grid and taking the lead in the first lap, but disaster struck and Ricciardo punctured a tyre on the fourth lap, sending him spiralling to the back of the field.

Remarkably, he managed to recover from the awful position to come — yep, you guessed it — fourth, but even his stirring comeback wasn’t enough to distract him from the massive opportunity he knew he’d let slip.

Then Russia happened.

Kvyat’s last start for Red Bull wrecked his teammate’s chances in the race after his mistakes saw him crash into Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who in turn hit Ricciardo, ending his day.

“I expect an apology (from Kvyat),” Ricciardo said after the race.

“I think he owes it to a few people today.”

The Monaco Grand Prix is next up on the agenda, the final race taking place on Sunday week.

“We had testing today, we had a lot of new parts on the car and I think it went quite well,” Ricciardo said in the Twitter video.

“Monaco’s next so just going to keep getting after it and I’m sure I’ll get what I deserve soon.”