Daniel Ricciardo is in a strange Formula One place currently. He is the only one of the four Red Bull drivers not to have been awarded with a contract for next season despite beating his team mate win the last three Grand Prix. Yet far from being in a precarious position, the eight times Grand Prix winner looks set to receive an offer from the Williams team who want an experienced driver to replace the hapless Logan Sargeant.

Team boss James Vowles set his sights on signing Carlos Sainz to join the rebuild programme he is heading up at Grove, yet the inordinate delay the Spaniard has created while considering his future options appears to have seen him ruled out of Williams future plans with the team casting their net further afield.

 

 

 

Marko suggest Ricciardo gets mid season sack

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner appeared to suggest in Austria that Daniel could even suffer the ignominy of a mid-season replacement coming in for him, as youngster Liam Lawson is waiting in the wings.

Dr. Helmut Marko added to the pressure when ahead of the Austrian GP weekend, Red Bull motorsport advisor Marko told Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung that, “the shareholders have made it clear that this is a junior team and we have to operate accordingly”.

“The goal was that with exceptional performances he [Ricciardo] would be in the frame for Red Bull Racing. That seat now belongs to Sergio Perez, so that plan is void,” added Marko. “You have to put a young driver there soon. That would then be Liam Lawson.”

Of course Marko represents the Austrian faction of the Red Bull holding company minority shareholders who appear to have moved against Christian Horner earlier this season. The Red Bull F1 team boss has the support of the Thai majority shareholder which saved him from suspension or even the sack as leaks were spread about his ‘inappropriate behaviour’ towards a female employee before the opening round of this year.

Marko responds to Red Bull engine problems rumours

 

 

 

Aussie driver criticises RB planning

In qualifying at the British Grand Prix, RB failed to live up to their own expectations with Daniel Ricciardo qualifying in fifteenth and his Japanese team mate two slots further ahead. The Aussie has scored points into of the last three races but in Northamptonshire the team fell behind Haas F1 Moneygram who with Nico Hulkenberg qualified sixth for the Grand Prix on Sunday.

Following the disappointing session, Ricciardo criticised the team for failing to optimise the qualifying run plans properly given he met traffic in the final corner before his push lap in Q2 which meant he had no chance off progressing further.

Speaking to F1TV, Ricciardo said: “Honestly, Q2 we need a talk about it and figure it out because at the time it didn’t make much sense to me, but you also can’t have drawn out conversations as time is of the essence. 

“Both runs I felt like our plan was well off and at the end we’ll struggling to get our lap in, so creating enemies at the last corner overtaking – I hate doing it, but I’m being told to do it so we get a lap.

Steiner hits out at Newey Ferrari move

 

 

 

Points look tough for RB in Silverstone

“Still you start one and a half, two seconds behind Zhou [Guanyu], you’re never going to get a good quali lap in dirty air so you say best track but it was far from that. That was certainly one of our most not good sessions.”

RB’s simulated race pace in practice doesn’t bode well for the Australian given the cars ahead look to be quicker and suffering from less tyre degradation than the RB pair, yet Ricciardo is prepared to put the mistakes of Saturday behind him to focus on the race which may be affected by bad weather.

“Of course, we’ll address what we need to and then look ahead to the race tomorrow. What’s done is done now, we’re fifteenth and that is that but we’ll see, we’ve struggled this weekend. 

“The last three weekends haven’t been easy but this weekend as a team it wasn’t going to be easy so the frustration comes from that too, where we don’t have the luxury to not get it right and I felt like both runs in Q2 we were doing a very questionable program so far from optimised.

“I’m not saying we could’ve done a P8 or something but we didn’t give ourselves a chance today. So tomorrow we’ll see, who knows what the weather is going to do!”

Ricciardo shock move to Williams?

 

 

 

Perez another qualifying shocker

Meanwhile matters went from bad to worse for Sergio Perez who crashed out of Q1 again and will start the race ahead of Pierre Gasly who collected a total of 50 grid place drops from the stewards for exceeding the season’s allowance on the number of power trains used together with a number of other restricted components.

Despite signing a new contract after five races this yer, the Mexican driver is under more pressure than ever given his string of shocking results. Checo has failed to make the top six in five of the last six Grand Prix and his paltry 15 points during that time has seen Red Bull score less than either Mercedes or McLaren.

When asked whether the team had been premature in retaining Perez’s services Christian Horner responded in something of a coded fashion. “That’s a brutally hard question,” replied the Red Bull team boss.

FIA face heavy criticism across the F1 paddock

 

 

 

Checo contract designed to help him

“It made absolute sense to sign Checo at that point in time, but this is a business in which there are pressures to deliver. We thought the contract would help. I think it’s something that Checo is working very hard on, and he knows this is a sport where there’s no hiding.

“Particularly with Max Verstappen as your teammate. He knows he’s being measured against the very best, and we need him up there supporting Max, because there’s two McLarens now, there’s two Ferraris, there’s two Mercedes and we need there to be desperately two Red Bulls.”

Daniel Ricciardo may have gone from zero to multiple options in the matter of a few weeks, given F1 writer Will Buxton claims he is now the focus of Williams attention given Carlos Sainz refuses to commit to James Vowles renewal programme for the Grove based team.

Sainz to join Alpine?

 

 

 

“Lack of respect”, Zak Brown hammers Red Bul

There never seems to be a dull moment in Formula One, especially when it comes to Red Bull Racing and their team principal, Christian Horner. The latest episode in this ongoing drama came a week after a heated exchange with Jos Verstappen and Christian Horner at Spielberg, now McLaren boss Zak Brown has aimed vitriol at Horner and his team during a press conference at Silverstone on Friday.

The catalyst for Brown’s criticism was the behaviour of Red Bull officials following the collision between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix. British team McLaren set the pace in practice for their home race in Great Britain, both on the laps and in the long runs, but are not too proud of their performance… READ MORE