The ‘pivotal’ Daniel Ricciardo moment which affected his ‘F1 existence’ identified

Anthony Davidson believes a particular moment of Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 return last year gave Liam Lawson the chance to pester Helmut Marko.

Ricciardo’s F1 career appears to be over as the VCARB team replaced him with Liam Lawson for the remainder of F1 2024, with the Australian having failed to impress Red Bull sufficiently since coming back to the sport.

Anthony Davidson: Zandvoort 2023 critical for Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career

Having parted ways with McLaren after 2022 as Ricciardo’s performance flagged to the point the Woking-based squad bought him out of the final year of his contract, Red Bull took the chance of re-hiring the Australian with whom they had enjoyed tremendous successes between 2014 and ’18.

Initially a reserve driver for the two Red Bull teams, Ricciardo got his chance to return to F1 after a strong Pirelli tyre test at the wheel of the RB19, with Red Bull placing him at AlphaTauri in place of the struggling Nyck de Vries.

But Ricciardo was no sooner back in F1 than he was gone again, as he suffered a hand injury in a crash during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix. He was replaced by reserve driver Liam Lawson, with the Kiwi impressing during a five-race stint including a ninth place in Singapore.

But Ricciardo was given the nod for F1 2024, with Lawson left sitting on the sidelines watching on as the Australian was largely outstripped by teammate Yuki Tsunoda. With a promotion back to Red Bull Racing not happening, Ricciardo was pulled out of the car after Singapore, with Lawson finally getting his opportunity – the announcement coming just days after Red Bull’s option on Lawson’s services expired.

“I think that the crash that Ricciardo suffered in Zandvoort last year, at Turn 3, you know, any driver will kick themselves after any incident, no matter how lightly you get away with it,” Sky F1 broadcaster and former F1 driver Anthony Davidson said on the Sky F1 podcast.

“But I think that moment was really pivotal to Daniel’s future at the team, and his existence in Formula 1 as a whole, because it allowed a young driver, hungry, snapping at his heels, that chance to get behind the wheel.

“Like we’ve seen with [Franco] Colapinto, you give these young drivers a sniff of a chance, in desperation they deliver, and, my goodness, they’re fun to watch.

“That’s exactly what we have with Lawson, and since then, he’s probably been pestering Helmut Marko, pestering, pestering, ‘See the job I did? I can do better than that. Put me back in the car, otherwise I’m off!'”

Lawson is known to have been a potential candidate for the second seat at Audi, having engaged in talks with the German manufacturer, and Davidson said he suspected Red Bull’s knowledge that they could lose the Kiwi meant a crunch decision was needed.

“I feel like, if it wasn’t now for Ricciardo, moving him aside now for Lawson, I fear that, for their sake, they would have lost him,” he said.

“They would have lost Lawson to another team, maybe Audi. Who knows? Somebody – he needed to go somewhere. And I think Red Bull could sense that.

“It’s a brutal sport. Who’s the future? Is it Ricciardo or is it Lawson? Well, unfortunately for Ricciardo, Lawson’s younger than him, so it’s just a game of numbers.”

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Christian Horner: This kid can drive!

While Lawson was no stranger to Red Bull at the point he got his chance to stand in for Ricciardo, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said the opportunity to see how the Kiwi fared in racing situations helped them come to the realisation of the extent of his skills.

“He [Ricciardo] had a great start in Hungary,” Horner told the F1 Nation podcaast, “but then shortly after the race broke his hand in an innocuous looking accident, but obviously the lash back on the steering wheel, it broke his hand quite badly.

“That knocked him out for four or five races, in which point we gave Liam the opportunity to step in as well. And suddenly it was like, ‘Okay, this kid can drive as well’.

“In the end, we elected [for F1 2024] to take experience over youth because the purpose of Daniel, because he wasn’t a junior driver, he was there as a backstop in the event that Sergio [Perez] wasn’t finding his form.”

With Ricciardo’s career coming to an ignominious end without finishing out the season, podcast host Tom Clarkson asked Horner why this occurred, with the team boss saying it’s evaluation time to figure out what to do for F1 2025 as the second seat alongside Tsunoda remains unconfirmed.

“From a broader perspective, we need answers for the bigger picture in terms of drivers. And of course, with six races remaining, it’s a perfect opportunity to line Liam up alongside Yuki to see how he performs over the remaining six Grands Prix.”

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