Last Updated on September 23 2024, 4:23 am

Red Bull Racing have proven to be a laser sharp Formula One team when it comes to winning races and championships unlike McLaren who have gifted Max Verstappen ten points this season by falling to prioritise Lando Norris in his chase down of the world champion drivers’ lead this year.

In their nineteen year history Red Bull have ditched more drivers mid-season than any other team since 2005. Daniel Kvyat was bumped down from his race seat alongside Max Verstappen as Alex Albon was promoted during the 2019 season.

Nyck de Vries suffered a similar fate in 2023 when after just ten races in the V-CARB team he was replaced by Ricciardo for the remainder of the season. Now it appears Ricciardo too is set to be ditched from V-CARB with six race weekends remaining in the 2024 competition.

 

 

 

Checo given ‘last chance saloon’ chance

Dr. Helmut Marko has been pressing for the organisation’s junior driver to be promoted to F1 before the beginning of 2025. This now appears to be at the expense of one of F1’s most likeable drivers and supporters of the Aussie driver are not happy.

Just eight weeks ago before the summer break, most F1 observers believed Red Bull were set to axe Sergio Perez  and replace him with the eight times Grand Prix winner, Ricciardo. Yet the decision from the team was to retain Checo given he had three of his four most effective circuits coming around in September.

Yet Sergio has failed to deliver as expected. Since receiving the vote of confidence from Red Bull, Checo has delivered the following results. P6 in Zandvoort, P8 in Monza, a DNF due to an avoidable crash with Sainz in Azerbaijan and he scraped him in P10 in Singapore a race he has previously won.

This miserable haul of 13 points in four race weekends for Perez has seen McLaren catch Red Bull in the constructors’ championship and following the race in the Asian City State they lead the world champions by 41 points.

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Retaining Perez was misguided

The decision to retain Perez rather than promote Ricciardo now appears misguided and the Mexican drivers’ reprieve may once again be under review. Williams have proven ditching underperforming drivers can bring fine results, as Logan Sargeant and his one point career came to an end after the Netherlands Grand Prix.

His replacement F2 driver Franco Colapinto has immediately repaid the faith of Williams in him by scoring four points more than Logan Sargeant in just the three races since he replaced the Florida born driver.

Perez lies eight in the drivers’ championship and is the lowest placed pilot form the four teams who are ahead of the field by a significant margin.

Yet it appears Ricciardo is the next Red Bull driver to be benched as most paddock folded publicly revealed the Singapore Grand Prix would be his last for V-CARB.

Astonishing value of Perez crash bill during 2024

 

 

 

V-CARB boss makes silly excuse

Australian publication Speedcafe has called out Red bull for acting with “disrespect” towards their former academy driver. “Should Daniel Ricciardo not race in F1 again, the Singapore Grand Prix was not a sign-off fitting for one of its biggest stars of the modern era,” an editorial now claims.

V-CARB were not competitive in Singapore with Yuki Tsunoda managing just P12 and Ricciardo who was also not going to score any points was used by the team to deny Lando Norris a point for the quickest lap. The result? He finished plumb last.

Laurent Mekies, team boss of V-CARB, stupidly claimed by pitting Ricciardo for the fastest lap was done as a favour to the Australian. “Given this may have been Daniel’s last race, we wanted to give him the chance to savour it and go out with the fastest lap,” said Mekies after the event.

Yet the fact Mekies cannot state whether Ricciardo will be in his team the next time out in Austin, Texas is evidence of the shoddy treatment the red Bull organisation is treating one of its more successful drivers.

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“Silent farewell” unacceptable

“That this silent farewell has come after what seems to have been a week of genuine uncertainty for the Australian — who in the space of two months went from thinking he would be replacing Sergio Pérez to being braced to be unceremoniously turfed from his seat — only adds insult to injury,” writes the Speedcafe editor.

Of course a driver underperforming in Formula One should expect the order of the boot and the Red Bull racing organisation have proven they will be ruthless in the past. No driver is entitled to be in Formula One – though some pay drivers have outstayed their welcome in the past times.

And Ricciardo has been open about his inability to get to grips with the new ground effect cars and it would be no surprise were Red Bull to bench him. It is even possible to mount a credible argument that Ricciardo should be ditched following the Singapore Grand Prix.

Its even reasonable for Red Bull to blood Liam Lawson for the final six races to ensure he hits the ground running when he is promoted to being a full tine F1 driver in 2025.

FIA fail to uphold their own rules while fiddling as Rome burns

 

 

 

Ricciardo an F1 paddock star

Yet it is the manner in which Red Bull have treated Ricciardo this week which has been called into question. The Aussie has genuinely no idea of his future and has been strung along without knowing for certain if this was in fact his last F1 appearance.

Fans of Ricciardo have had no opportunity to say goodbye to one of the most likeable characters the F1 paddock has seen for the best part of two decades.

While Ricciardo’s decision to leave Red Bull in in 2018 is questionable and that he has battled in the midfield ever since does not mean he is a journeyman driver. Daniel has won eight grand prix in his career in an era when Mercedes all dominant power unit saw the most dominant period for a team the sport has ever seen.

His happy go lucky persona has attracted new fans through Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” and in a sport where drivers are media savvy and give little away in interviews, Ricciardo has been a refreshing change to the norm, always wearing his heart on his sleeve.

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Ricciardo admits a flood “of emotions”

Despite no official communication from Red bull to Ricciardo, the Aussie appeared to know his fate when speaking after the race in Singapore. “A lot of emotions, because I’m aware it could be it,” an emotional Ricciardo said after the race. “I’m also just exhausted after the race.

“There’s a flood of many emotions and feelings and exhaustion. The cockpit is something that I got very used to for many years. I just wanted to savour the moment.”

What presumably will face Daniel Ricciardo is an anonymous press release sometime in the next three weeks announcing his departure. Hardly worthy of his services to the sport of F1.

The fact Laurent Mekies said he would be clarifying the situation over the weekend – but didn’t – represents the complete dysfunctional nature of this Red Bull Racing process.

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Fans give a vote of ‘respect’

F1’s 500 million TV audience appeared to understand the messed up nature of the situation. Despite Ricciardo coming plain last they voted him the driver of the day, something usually reserved for a driver delivering a stunning performance.

“Typically the driver of the day thing is not something us drivers put too much into, but today I can say it’s something I’m appreciative of,” he told Sky Sports. “That one today means a little something.”

Of course in an F1 season which is proving to be one of the most unpredictable in recent memory, Red Bull could ditch Perez after he has failed to deliver when offered a four race post summer lifeline. Ricciardo may then get a six race sawn song alongside Verstappen, who he partnered when the Dutch driers was a rookie in F1.

Report: Red Bull hunting Norris again

 

 

 

Red Bull’s “cheating” tactics questioned

The 2024 Singapore Grand Prix weekend was dominated over a row about the FIA’s new clampdown on swearing. Max Verstappen at the Thursday official FIA press conference dropped the F-bomb in conversation and was hit by the race stewards with a days worth of community service.

The world champion hit back at F1’s governing body by refusing to answer questions in the FIA post qualifying press conference. Max preferred to invite the journalists outside after the media event had finished to then speak his mind.

Verstappen threatened such petty moves by the FIA could force him to leave the sport and pursue other motorsport activities. “These kind of things definitely decide my future, if you can’t be yourself or you have to deal with these silly things,” Verstappen aged just 26 said… READ MORE