By Aiden Box
HE’S one of Australia’s most beloved international athletes, with an infectious ear-to-ear smile and true blue ‘Aussie’ charm.
But for Daniel Ricciardo, his time in the sun appears to be fading, and fading fast.
Especially after a first-lap crash and failure to finish at last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, resulting in zero points for himself and thousands of dollars worth of damage to the car.
The proud Western Australian has found himself under extreme pressure recently, following a quartet of underwhelming performances to start the 2024 Formula 1 season.
This isn’t new for the Perth native though, who’s been through the ringer both emotionally and competitively since leaving modern-day superpower Red Bull Racing in 2018.
Now at his fourth team since his big move, the eight-time race winner is without a podium since his triumph for McLaren in 2021, and without points since Mexico in 2023, he’s reportedly facing an ultimatum:
Improve and score points in the next couple of races (Japan and China) or lose your seat to Kiwi talent Liam Lawson, who is currently RB’s third/reserve driver and replaced Ricciardo briefly in 2023 to great success.
These rumours surfaced across F1 media during the off-week between the Australian and Japanese Grand Prix this year and for all of those who know F1 and Red Bull director Helmut Marko, it appears there is a whole breadth of truth to them.
This is backed up by several F1 experts including former world champion Damon Hill.
“At some point, you have to go to Daniel, ‘Listen, your career is about to evaporate, you just have to get over it and just drive this damned thing and not look for perfection,” Hill said.
Interestingly though, Ricciardo himself made a statement to the media quashing the claims.
“People tell me, like in the media they’re like ‘Oh so and so said…’ it’s the first I’ve heard of it,” he said.
Despite this though, the rumours appear to ring true, especially when one considers Red Bull’s track record, as well as their current situation.
Firstly, a brief history of Red Bull…
Ricciardo’s current team — Visa Cash App RB (or RB as they are referred to) is owned by Red Bull Racing. For years, under many names and brandings (Toro Rosso, AlphaTauri and now RB) it’s been Red Bull’s sister team and used as the in-competition training ground for their young/reserve drivers, while being a separate constructor themselves.
This means there’s been plenty of driver movement between the two teams as drivers prove themselves and earn a spot or “promotion” to Red Bull.
However, it’s not a friendly corporate sort of environment, especially with Marko in charge, who has a grizzly track record of impatience with drivers.
There have been eight instances in the last 20 years where a driver has been booted from his seat during a season or replaced after one at either of the Red Bull-owned teams.
Most recently and famously, current drivers, Max Verstappen, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and of course Ricciardo have all been involved.
In short, performance and clean racing is paramount at both teams and their management doesn’t stand for anything less and it sure doesn’t let anything less play out for very long.
Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat lost his seat in the parent team to a teenage Verstappen in 2016 after numerous crashes/dangerous driving and never got it back.
Kvyat then lost his Toro Rosso seat in 2017 to young gun Gasly, whose pace saw him promoted to the senior team in 2019 after Ricciardo left, but only for 12 races, when he was dropped again for multiple crashes.
Albon was his replacement, but he only lasted a season and a half, getting demoted post 2020 after again multiple crashes and underwhelming performances.
In case that’s tough to follow, Red Bull-owned teams are high-pressure environments and drivers are expected to perform weekly and not damage the car.
With this said, it all spells a tough tale for the out-of-form Aussie, who began the season as the odds favourite to replace Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, who was himself under Marko pressure.
Now, the fairy tale return to partner triple reigning world champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull looks like nothing but a pipe dream for the “Honey Badger”, who has once again been outqualified and beaten by his teammate in Yuki Tsunoda.
It appears he needs to go back to his aggressive, razor-sharp late-breaking and smooth overtaking that earned him the animal-related nickname.
The “Honey Badger has eight Grand Prix victories to his name (the fourth most by an Aussie), most of these came while driving for Red Bull where he was regularly finishing on the podium (29 of his 32 podiums were with Red Bull).
He made the shock decision, post-2018, a season where he won the famous Monaco Grand Prix, to leave Red Bull and the emerging Verstappen and drive for French team Renault.
DR3’ did his best to carry his form over to his new team but a coupling of numerous mechanical issues and bad luck saw him take a drop in podium finishes (2), to the point where he signed with McLaren for 2021.
In his two years at McLaren, he managed numerous points finishes but just one podium - his most recent win in Formula 1, at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix where he pulled out his famous “shoey” celebration and declared he was back.
Following a disappointing 2022 though, he went without a contract or a race seat for the start of 2023 when he decided to ‘take some time’ and sign on as Red Bull’s reserve driver.
Luckily, to true Red Bull form, they sacked Dutch rookie Nyck de Vries halfway through the 2023 season and replaced him with the West Australian who went scoreless in his first two showings back in F1, then broke his hand during practice in his third.
To true ‘Danny Ric’ fashion though, he returned for the Mexican Grand Prix and finished seventh, RB (then AplhaTauri)’s best finish of the 2023 season.
Now, Ricciardo with the unpredictable nature of the Red Bull setup, still has a chance to secure his seat, although with Perez claiming his third podium of the season, Tsunoda scoring all of RB’s points so far this year and Lawson’s talent, the odds are stacked against him.
A born entertainer and true representative of Australia, it’s in our blood to love Daniel Ricciardo and Formula 1 does too, we hold our collective breaths for the verdict.
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