As Formula One headed into the summer break, the usual flurry of announcement away from the media spotlight were made. Red Bull Racing were set for showdown talks between Dr. Helmut Marko and Christian Horner over the future driver lineups for both teams.

Dr. Marko has been on his hobby horse for several weeks bigger up the Red Bull academy drivers and even suggesting retaining Daniel Ricciardo has now become pointless.

“Racing Bulls is a junior team. So it is logical that the shareholders would like to see Liam Lawson in the cockpit,” Marko told Kronen Zeitung. “Ricciardo should be two or three tenths faster than Yuki Tsunoda, but at the moment things are not going the way team boss Horner imagined,” Marko concluded in a dig at the Red Bull team boss.

 

 

 

Marko says Ricciardo path ‘pointless’

Speaking to Kliene Zeitung the following week, the 81 year old Austrian was even more direct in his views of Ricciardo’s place amongst the Red Bull drivers. “The goal was that (Ricciardo) would be considered for Red Bull Racing with exceptional performances,”

“That seat now belongs to Sergio Perez, so that plan is no longer valid. We will have to put a young driver in there soon. That would be Liam Lawson.”

Since the death of the energy drinks company founder, there has been a tug of war inside Red Bull with Christian Horner demanding a greater say in driver decisions for the RB sister team. Last season Marko admitted he and Horner had not seen eye to eye over the recruitment of Formula E champion Nyck de Vries.

The Red Bull team principal had snatched up Daniel Ricciardo in 2022 as a reserve driver for Red Bull, following the Aussie being released a whole year before his contract with McLaren was due to expire. The intention as Dr. Marko revealed was for Daniel to be a backup should Sergio Perez fail to deliver.

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Horner and Marko disagree

Yet Marko held firm and the seat was given to Nyck de Vries. “Yuki is young and doesn’t have this experience and background, so [Nyck] should lead the team,” Marko said ahead of the 2023 season.

“We will see how it goes next year, but from the experience and the personality he has, he should be the team leader.”

Just ten races later the young dutch driver was out. Horner had arranged a test drive at Silverstone for Ricciardo and given Pirelli were testing tyres, the Aussie unusually got to run the current car and the current tyres used the previous weekend at the British grand Prix.

Before the day was out, news broke that Daniel had delivered a lap time good enough to have placed him on the front row the previous weekend. The call was made to De Vries and Ricciardo stepped into the Alpha Tauri car the following weekend in Hungary.

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Big changes at RB sister team

When asked whether he and Horner regularly disagreed over driver line ups, Marko replied candidly: “Not often, but sometimes we do. The last one… I would say de Vries,” adding, “He [Horner] was not a fan of De Vries. I would say at the moment it looks like he was right.”

During last season the future for the Red Bull sister team was revealed and changes were indeed afoot. Certain aerodynamic functions were relocated to the UK base in Bicester and the team was to be rebranded as the Racing Bulls. Alpha Tauri the Red Bull clothing brand was dropped and a new title sponsor in Visa Cash App was brought in.

The plan was for RB was revealed by Marko. “AlphaTauri will have two new leaders in Laurent Mekies and Peter Bayer [the outgoing FIA general secretary] from 2024.

“There will be new sponsors and also a new name. The orientation is clear: based on Red Bull Racing, as far as the regulations allow. Do-it-yourself constructions are the wrong way.”

RB boss hits back at Marko over Ricciardo

 

 

 

Ricciardo defies Marko’s opinion

The Austrian maintained despite the closer affiliation with Red Bull Racing,  “The decision has been made. AlphaTauri will remain fully owned by Red Bull and will continue to be run as a junior team.”

Yet with Daniel Ricciardo claiming one seat in the junior team, the division in opinion of how RB should function remained clear for all to see.

Now the Aussie fights back against Helmut Marko, speaking about the new direction the team is making under new management:

“Their intentions, and the way they go about it, has made people kind of stand up and say, ‘Alright, yeah, this isn’t, this isn’t a junior team anymore, we’re making big boy decisions and we’re taking risks, and we’re setting of targets, and high targets, and ones that we realistically think that we can obtain’,” Ricciardo said of the impact he’s seen.

“It’s cool. It’s cool to see it.

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Perez could yet be replaced

“I think as well, it would show… I’m probably too, in a way, honest in myself that, if it felt like a junior team still, I wouldn’t feel comfortable,” he added.

After a poor start to the year, Ricciardo’s form has improved in recent weeks although he remains one place behind his team mate and ten points adrift. From Canada onwards the Aussie has outscored his Japanese team mate making the points on three occasions over the six race stint.

With Perez now confirmed beyond the summer break, questions remain over the future direction of RB so long as Ricciardo remains with the team. It could be Sergio is yet replaced this season should Red Bull’s rivals close the gap even further.

And so long as Dr. Marko is around he will be championing the cause of the academy drivers.

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Sticking point with Sainz deal with Williams

Carlos Sainz ended speculation over his future by announcing he will move to Williams from next season onwards despite talk of a chance at Mercedes. The Spaniard had been informed pre-season that he was being replaced at Ferrari by seven times champion Lewis Hamilton next year.

Hopes of a seat at Red Bull faded away when Red Bull announced the day after the Belgium Grand Prix that Perez would not be replaced and the news of Carlos future at Williams interestingly broke around the same time.

Mercedes too had been a potential new home for Sainz as Toto Wolff admitted more than once he was interested in the Ferrari driver. Yet clearly that door also closed leaving Sainz the options of Sauber/Audi, Alpine and Williams… READ MORE