Ricciardo Still Not Ruled Out Of Fight For Red Bull Seat According To Barretto
F1Monday, 15 April 2024 at 02:30
Formula 1 journalist and announcer Lawrence Barretto suggested Red Bull still didn't completely didn't rule out Daniel Ricciardo in the battle for their second seat in 2025.
Lawrence Barretto wrote on the official F1 website ahead of the 2024 season that Daniel Ricciardo was on the top of Red Bull's candidate list for the second seat alongside Max Verstappen.
The team wanted to send him to RB to warm up and show what he's got. However, the problem is that the honey badger hasn't shown much in the first four races of the season.
The team would want him to at least beat his teammate, but Yuki Tsunoda has been driving brilliantly and has had the upper hand so far.
In fact, Ricciardo hasn't beaten Tsunoda once in qualifying. It seems the Australian couldn't find his mojo during the first four race weekends. He felt like the problem could have been with his car's chassis.
While that is very unlikely to be the case, RB will give him a new chassis for the Chinese Grand Prix, so it will be interesting to see whether that helps the 34-year-old. Barretto wrote for F1's official website:
"Sure, Ricciardo is not doing himself any favours at the moment – and it's not ideal for him that his bad run of form is coming at a time when Perez and Tsunoda are shining, but even if Red Bull are famous for lacking patience, giving up on a driver with a proven track record and who they have put a lot of time into trying to rebuild this early is unlikely – even for them."
One driver named Nyck de Vries sat in Ricciardo's seat in 2023 and performed very similarly during the first half of the season.
Red Bull and RB leaders showed no mercy to the 29-year-old Dutchman and removed him from the seat after ten races. However, even if the team wanted to do the same with the honey badger, he still has six more race weekends to show what he's got.
Moreover, Barretto wrote that his sources in the paddock suggest that despite his rocky start to the season, Ricciardo might still end up in the Red Bull's seat in 2025 if he can show improvement.
"While sources admit Ricciardo's star has lost some of its shine within Red Bull, they aren't ruling him out just yet."
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