Daniel Ricciardo refutes Helmut Marko’s claim as Red Bull spotlight now shifts

Daniel Ricciardo says VCARB feels “different” to the junior team of yesteryear despite Helmut Marko claiming it is a junior team and “will have to” act according with its driver line-up.

Christian Horner’s Monday evening confirmation that Sergio Perez “remains” a Red Bull driver put paid to speculation Ricciardo could step up to the senior team after the summer break.

Is VCARB a junior team or not? Daniel Ricciardo’s response

And in doing so the spotlight as shifted onto the Honey Badger’s position at Red Bull’s junior team, VCARB, with Ricciardo and reserve driver Liam Lawson taking part in a ‘shootout’, as it’s being billed by the media, at Imola on Wednesday.

While it was speculated the two would be going head-to-head for Perez’s seat, with Horner now confirming Perez is staying it could be a fight to see who has the VCARB seat come the Dutch Grand Prix or even for 2025.

Red Bull motorsport advisor Marko has already suggested a change has to take place at some point given VCARB is a junior team.

“The shareholders have made it clear that it is a junior team and we have to act accordingly,” he told Austrian publication Kleine Zeitung last month.

“The goal was that [Ricciardo] would be considered for Red Bull Racing with exceptional performances. That seat now belongs to Sergio Perez, so that plan is no longer valid.

“We will have to put a young driver in there soon. That would be Liam Lawson.”

How the 2025 F1 grid is shaping up

?F1 2025 driver line-up: Who is already confirmed for the 2025 grid?

?The drivers out of contract at the end of the F1 2024 season

But fighting for his F1 future, never mind that within the Red Bull family, Ricciardo argues VCARB is no longer a junior team.

Put to him at Spa that it is ‘more than just a junior team’, he told the media including PlanetF1.com: “Yeah, it does feel different, and I think it’s easy to kind of rebrand it and say we’ve got a new look and with this and that, but your actions have to follow.

“I think, Laurent, Peter, Alan, a lot of guys that have come in have done that.

“It’s not that what was happening in the past with Franz [Tost, former team boss], in that example, wasn’t the right thing, but a change sometimes is good. You bring in new ideas. They’ve all spent time in other teams, organisations. And yeah, it’s just a new way of looking at things.

“I think that in itself and their intentions and the way they go about it has made people kind of stand up and say, alright, this isn’t a junior team anymore.

“We’re making, kind of, big boy decisions and we’re taking risks and we’re setting targets and high targets and ones that we realistically think that we can attain. So, it’s cool. It’s cool to see it.

“I’m probably too, in a way, like honest in myself that if it felt like a junior team still, I wouldn’t feel comfortable here. I’m 35 now. So, I think I would feel a bit out of place. And I certainly don’t. So I think that’s also a good way to probably comprehend it.”

Although Ricciardo faces the shootout, or ‘job interview’ against Lawson on Wednesday, he boosted his chances of holding onto his VCARB seat with a points-scoring P10 at Spa.

“I don’t want to say you’re as good as your last race, but there is, like, when it comes to these moments, these races are more critical than any other,” he said.

“So as I said, and this wasn’t anything I’d heard from them, but even just myself, just telling myself, ‘look, these could be very, very important races in my career and just leave it all out there and do everything I can’.

“There’s also talks that will I even be here. So it’s like, there is so much to kind of fight for. And yeah, I think for that, I just really made a point to every race you prepare. And of course, you do what you can. But I just made a point that, yeah, leave it all out there. And that’s that.

“So yeah. We’ll see.”

Read next: Follow PlanetF1.com’s WhatsApp channel for all the F1 breaking news!