Daniel Ricciardo’s future with Red Bull’s Formula 1 teams will be discussed in a meeting during the summer break, his team boss has confirmed.
Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko recently claimed Ricciardo will be replaced at their second team RB by reserve driver Liam Lawson “shortly”.
RB CEO Peter Bayer admitted Ricciardo’s performances haven’t met the standard they expected. He has been out-scored by his less experienced team mate Yuki Tsunoda so far this year.
However Bayer insisted they are not in a rush to change their driver line-up. “Daniel has been an important part of the team since he joined us last year,” Bayer told the official Formula 1 channel. “He brought lots of new spirit, fresh ideas.
“I guess he was rising simply the expectations within ourselves. He has been very important in working with Yuki. He has been important in helping us with the set-up of the car.
“In terms of performance, and he stated by himself, it wasn’t the best of him that we have seen so far. I still believe there’s lots of things to come from Daniel.
“We’ve seen some glimpses of that in Miami, in Montreal. And we know that simply by monitoring him, he’s got the speed he will have to deliver in order to be considered for 2025.
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“At the same time, we’re not in a rush. We have a big talent pool. We have Liam who is ready to join the team.”
Bayer confirmed he, Marko and the team principals of RB and Red Bull – Laurent Mekies and Christian Horner – will meet during the four-week break after the Belgian Grand Prix to consider their options for the second seat at RB.
“Really what we want to try and achieve is go quietly into the summer break and then have a discussion between – it will be Helmut. It will be Christian, it will be Laurent, it will be myself and even the shareholders might be interested in the final decision. But it will be quiet and without any haste.”
Red Bull originally created its second team as a place to develop young drivers on their way into Formula 1. That appeared to change when it rebranded the team as RB this year and said it was “now reborn with an expanded mission to battle for the sport’s biggest prizes.” Ricciardo, who starts his 250th grand prix this weekend, formed the team’s most experienced line-up to date with Tsunoda, who is in his fourth season of F1.
However Bayer acknowledged RB’s need to continue developing…
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