Horner's Verdict On Ricciardo: 'A Great Guy Who Was Very Badly Advised'

Monday, 13 November 2023 at 19:00

Updated at Monday, 13 November 2023 at 21:25

Red Bull Racing F1 team principal Christian Horner recently reflected on current AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo's decision to leave Red Bull.

Daniel Ricciardo was once a young talent in a Red Bull Racing team. In 2014, the Australian joined the team to drive alongside the four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

Undertaking a very challenging task to be directly compared with Vettel himself, the Honey Badger managed to end the season with 71 points of the German driver - an incredible result showing promise in Riccirado's future.

However, Ricciardo found himself in a similar situation to Vettel when young Max Verstappen joined Red Bull and started beating his more experienced teammate in 2016.

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Feeling that Red Bull's focus was perhaps shifting towards developing the talent of Verstappen, Ricciardo decided to leave the team in 2018.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told the Eff Won podcast: "Daniel is a great guy, who was very badly advised earlier in his career."

After leaving Red Bull, Ricciardo went to Renault for two seasons, from where he would later switch to McLaren. However, things did not work out for the Honey Badger in either of these two teams.

"Everybody f***s up at some point and I think he recognised that he made a mistake [in leaving Red Bull], he didn't have good advice around him at the point he left us and he could see that Max was growing, and probably didn't realise just how good he was going to be."

The Red Bull team principal suggests the Australian would be better off had he decided to stay with Red Bull. However, every single driver wanted to be the Champion and Ricciardo did not want to stay in the team where he would have been "the support act."

"I remember Daniel being upset at the time, and suddenly felt that he didn't want to be the support act, and he got a lot of noise in his ear about money on the table."

In 2023, Ricciardo returned to the Red Bull family and currently races for the sister team of Red Bull - AlphaTauri alongside Yuki Tsunoda.

The second seat in Red Bull might be empty from the 2025 season, and Daniel Ricciardo might have a decent chance of getting it. Would you like to see the Honey Badger back in Red Bull?