Daniel Ricciardo ‘on shaky ground’ at VCARB as worrying F1 theory emerges
VCARB's Daniel Ricciardo.
Daniel Ricciardo has served his purpose at VCARB as speculation continues to swirl over his future within Red Bull.
That is the opinion of Sky F1 pundit Anthony Davidson, who suspects Ricciardo is “on shaky ground” as Red Bull prepare to determine over the summer break how their driver line-ups will look going forward.
Does Daniel Ricciardo no longer fit VCARB purpose?
Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko recently confirmed that there is a desire among the shareholders for VCARB to return to its roots as Red Bull’s junior team, developing future talent, with Davidson theorising that Ricciardo no longer fits that vision.
Davidson argued that Ricciardo did have a key role to play, mentoring team-mate Yuki Tsunoda and the team overall, but with Tsunoda now far more experienced than when Ricciardo got the call midway through 2023, while Tsunoda leads the F1 2024 qualifying and race head-to-heads against Ricciardo, he suspects the writing could be on the wall for Ricciardo.
“I think the comments from Helmut are genuine as well,” said Davidson in reference to the VCARB junior team focus.
“That is the purpose of RB, the junior team to Red Bull, to be nurturing young talent and I think Daniel actually had a very good position in the team when Yuki was young, but he’s not an inexperienced driver anymore.
“And Daniel was there to help Yuki and the team I feel, to help guide them and increase performance in the team. But now that the performance isn’t really there for him, I think he’s on a bit of shaky ground and it’s true that the team’s purpose is to bring on younger talent.”
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Ricciardo had been seen as the prime candidate to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull down the line, but Perez was signed to a new multi-year deal in June with Ricciardo struggling to impress.
Perez though, like Ricciardo, is facing renewed pressure to retain his Red Bull place amid a wretched run of form, with Red Bull reserve Liam Lawson – who replaced the injured Ricciardo and impressed in a five-race spell last year – emerging as the leading contender to replace Perez if that call is made.
Ricciardo, speaking to media at the Hungarian GP, said Red Bull are expecting more of Perez, but he and his fellow veteran have learnt in time to block out external noise about their future.
“I guess it depends how we’re spotlighted in the media, but the truth is every driver is under pressure,” said Ricciardo.
“Even the ones that are killing it, there has been pressure for them to keep performing.
“So my point is that we all feel it. Obviously, I’ve been in the spotlight a bit this year, Checo’s in the spotlight [now].
“Even after my good race in Montreal, I said: ‘Look, I need to do another good one because you’re only as good as your last race and one good weekend doesn’t quite let you off the hook. It temporarily does, but then it can quickly change.
“Yes, of course, I know. I’ve seen some statistics that Max [Verstappen] has scored a lot more points than Checo and, of course, yes, they are expecting a bit more.
“But this is the sport. It’s what we’re in. We feel it all the time. It’s just who is in the spotlight [this] week. It’s up to us to obviously try to shut it out.
“And it’s not easy as well sometimes.
“If everyone is just always asking you questions about [your future] – you have this, you have that – it sometimes feels very negative or can sometimes feel heavy.
“But I think in my experience – and I include Checo here as well, because he’s also been in Formula 1 a similar amount of time – we have dealt with it enough that I think you learn just to realise to focus on the engineering, focus on the car setup and the rest.
“You hear it, but you have to just roll with it.”
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