Ricciardo Was Under Threat Of Being Replaced Even Much Earlier Reveals Horner

Tuesday, 01 October 2024 at 10:01

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo could have been replaced in RB after the Spanish Grand Prix.

Red Bull's B team - RB / VCARB, replaced Daniel Ricciardo following the 18th round of the season at Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore.

The 34-year-old driver couldn't confirm it during the race weekend, but four days later, on Thursday, September 26th, VCARB announced that the Honey Badger would be replaced by Liam Lawson.

Lawson showed great potential in 2023 when he jumped into the car for five race weekends to replace Ricciardo, who had suffered an injury during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend.

Since then, he has been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for his next opportunity, and Helmut Marko warned multiple times that he would get it if Daniel Ricciardo or Sergio Perez didn't meet expectations of their teams.

During his latest appearance on the F1 Nation podcast, the team principal of Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner, revealed it was a real possibility that the Honey Badger would be replaced already after the tenth round of the season in Barcelona:

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"I mean, he started the season roughly, and then Miami was a weekend of two halves. The Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic, and it looked like the Daniel of old, defending against Ferraris and out-driving the car. But then the Saturday afternoon and the Sunday were disastrous."

"And even around Barcelona, Helmut [Marko] wanted him out of the car, and there was already a lot of pressure on him there."

"I've done my very best to buy him as much time in the car to allow him to deliver, otherwise he would have been out of the car after Barcelona."

The principal of Red Bull's F1 team also confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo was given a chance at VCARB because the goal was ultimately to have him ready for the seat at Red Bull.

However, in the 18 Grand Prix weekends that he participated in 2024, Daniel Ricciardo scored 12 points - almost two times less than his teammate Yuki Tsunoda (22). The 34-year-old didn't convince the team from Milton Keynes with this level of performance, which ultimately led to his replacement.

"I think that all the drivers are under pressure to deliver, but the reason that Daniel was in that car was to get himself back into a position to ultimately be there to pick up the pieces if Checo didn't deliver."

"And the problem was they both had issues with form at varying times. Checo started the season very well, very strongly, and Daniel was struggling."

"And then obviously, as Checo lost form, Daniel found a bit of form, but it was never compelling enough to say, 'Okay, you know, we should switch the two drivers."