Christian Horner came out fighting this weekend over the decision to retain Sergio Perez alongside Max Verstappen. Dr. Helmut Marko had revealed there would be a big pow pow in Milton Keynes on the day following the start of the summer break. Within a couple of hours and to much surprise, up came the white smoke along with the statement that Checo was to remain in his Red Bull seat going forward.

Checo had been awarded a new contract earlier this season as Horner later explained was designed to give their driver confidence of his future which would hopefully feed into more consistent performances. Yet since the over eight Grand Prix weekends and including Sprint events, Perez has scored just 27 points.

All this happened befor a ‘filming day’ test was run by V-CARB which saw Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson behind the wheel. It appeared to be set up as a shootout between the two drivers likely to replace Perez should the need arise. Last year Ricciardo performed a similar test and within hours was announced to be the replacement for the luckless Nyck de Vries.

 

 

 

 

RB test inconclusive

Two things have become clear since the RB test, firstly the Red Bull management don’t believe Ricciardo will make a significant difference to the team were he to replace Sergio Perez. And secondly the team realise that replacing Ricciardo or even Tsunoda with Liam Lawson is the right thing to do at this present moment.

Retaining Ricciardo over Lawson also gives the team the opportunity to replace Sergio in the near future should his results of 27 points in the eight most recent Grand Prix weekends not improve. Red Bull’s lead has been cut to just 42 points by McLaren since Lando Norris debut F1 win in Miami and the team championship matters as much to Rede Bull as does the drivers which Verstappen should still win come Abu Dhabi.

Zandvoort is not a circuit where McLaren have gone well in previous seasons. Despite having outscored every other team bar Red Bull from Austria to the Dutch Grand Prix last year, Lando Norris could only manage a P7 finish while Oscar Piastri was two further back in P9.

This will raise Red Bull’s hopes who have been dominant in Zandvoort the last three seasons with Max Verstappen winning every competitive session on track.

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Perez not completely safe

The guillotine still hangs over the head of Sergio Perez but Daniel Ricciardo has now reacted to the lack of a phone call during the summer break to inform him he is returning to Red Bull Racing.

Speaking to assembled media in the Netherlands Ricciardo was asked how he felt not getting the Red Bull call up.

“I didn’t rule it out, for sure. I don’t want to say, ‘oh no, I never thought that’. I thought maybe something could happen, but I also didn’t expect it or kind of get my hopes up. I was aware maybe something changes, but let’s just do what I’m doing and if I get a call, I get a call,” revealed the Aussie.

“So that was that. So obviously I didn’t get a call, but also that was probably where I mentally kind of prepared myself more than, oh, this is it now. This is going to happen. So pretty unchanged,” said the eight times Grand Prix winner.

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Ricciardo reveals feelings following no phone call

Ricciardo reveals he was in contact with the team during the summer break and that Red Bull elected to continue work for a week following the last race in Belgium. F1 Teams can elect when their mandatory 14 consecutive day close down us during the three and a half weeks between races.

“I didn’t receive the call to be like, ‘Hey, what’s up? You’re changing’. But no, of course I still speak. Obviously that week after Spa, it was still not shut down. So we were still able to work and I had a filming day. So I also spoke to the team after that,” said Ricciardo.

Daniel had a poor start to the season when compared to his team mate Yuki Tsunoda who led the charge for RB claiming five points finishes during the first eight race weekends. yet since Canada some six races ago it has been Ricciardo who has faired better in scoring points in three of the rounds while Yuki has only managed the top ten twice.

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Daniel focused on his own performance

“It’s clear that since Montreal, I’ve done more of what was probably expected of me results wise. So it’s just very much keep doing that. Keep performing at the level we know you can and things will work itself out. Performance is everything. 

“Obviously I got to keep on it myself and that helps my chances of obviously staying on the grid,” Ricciardo concluded. The Aussie is the only one of the four Red Bull drivers currently on the grid who has no contract for next season and this week Dr. Helmut Marko promised that Liam Lawson will next yer be driving for one of the two Red Bull teams.

Even so Ricciardo is not looking elsewhere in F1 for a drive and when asked about the implications of Marko’s comment, Daniel appeared to be relaxed. “It’s OK,” he said. “I still know that performance is my best friend and that if I do what I know I can do and capable of, then I think it puts me in a very good position to stay somewhere in the family for next year. I’ve just got to focus on that.

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Ricciardo says Lawson deserves F1 drive

“Speaking of Liam, I got to see him drive the car last year and I do think he did a great job. I do think he is worthy of a seat on the grid, so in a way I’m happy for him. If he is guaranteed a seat next year, then I think that’s good because he is a deserving driver.”

Ricciardo admits this means his future is “a little bit unknown, but if I perform then I’m sure they’ll find spot for me somewhere.”

Recently Lewis Hamilton admitted he’d been too slow to adapt his driving style for the new grand effect era of F1 car design. It has often seemed as though Ricciardo as one of the more senior F1 competitors has also found the more mobile centre of pressure under the car, difficult to predict. 

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Ferrari “secret” upgrade during the summer break

As the Formula One summer break comes to an end, the teams will be back in competition this weekend in Zandvoort. The pause in work during July/August was brought in a number off years ago as the calendar ballooned to over 20 race weekends a year and it includes a mandatory 14 consecutive days where the factories are closed.

A further reason given by the FIA when introducing the fourteen day mandatory closure was to scale back the R&D teams were doing mid-season given previously the time would be used in attempts to improve the car 

This year the FIA beefed up the shutdown rules insisting that during each team’s nominated two weeks of closure, screens must be switched off and email “out of office” replies standardised… READ MORE