Ricciardo Still Has 'A Lot More To Do' Before He Can Go To Red Bull

Sunday, 17 December 2023 at 23:00

Sky F1 co-commentator Martin Brundle described why he is not convinced that Daniel Ricciardo deserves the Red Bull seat just yet.

Daniel Ricciardo has achieved 32 podium finishes and 8 Grand Prix wins, which suggests he has the qualities to be able to drive alongside Max Verstappen in Red Bull.

On the other hand, the Honey Badger came to AlphaTauri mid-season to replace Nyck De Vries and race alongside Yuki Tsunoda, who is not most often mentioned as one of the best drivers on the grid, and the Australian played pretty much equal game with the Japanese driver.

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Many people expected Ricciardo to come to AlphaTauri and outperform the other driver, but that was not completely the case. Martin Brundle wrote in Sky Sports F1 Q&A:

“"I don’t think Daniel has perhaps outperformed Tsunoda as I would have expected him to. I know he was thrown in at the deep end, and he was really unlucky with that incident in Zandvoort. So the jury is out on that."”

The Former F1 driver also pointed out that McLaren's bet to replace the Australian at a super high cost with Oscar Piastri has played out well for the team in 2023.

“"And you have to say McLaren replaced him with [Oscar] Piastri, at some cost and pain, and that proved to be a pretty smart move, didn’t it?"”

The Honey Badger lately shared that his ultimate goal is to return to Red Bull and finish his career in the team from Milton Keynes.

However, Brundle believes Ricciardo has to show a better performance in 2024 in comparison to his teammate in order to convince everybody he deserves the hot seat in Red Bull.