Marko dismisses Ricciardo’s promotion at Red Bull, favouring Perez’s continued partnership.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has stated that Daniel Ricciardo has not done enough to earn a place within the Red Bull Racing team, which has opted to retain Sergio Perez.
Perez entered the summer break following a series of notably poor races, amassing only 28 points in eight events, thus jeopardizing the team’s hopes of retaining the constructors’ title.
Despite this run prompting a review of his position during a meeting in the summer hiatus, Red Bull has surprisingly decided to give the Mexican a reprieve.
Ricciardo, who raced with Red Bull from 2014 to 2018, was seen as the likely candidate to replace Perez should the team choose to make a change.
However, the Australian will remain with the RB F1 team once the season resumes. Despite improvements in Ricciardo’s performances over recent months, Marko has conceded that these were not sufficient to warrant a promotion.
“Daniel was put in the car and had he been significantly faster than Yuki, there was the idea of bringing him back to Red Bull Racing. But he has had his ups and downs. So, so far, he does not meet the criteria to return as a Red Bull Racing driver.”
Ricciardo finds himself in an unusual position where he could either stay put, receive a promotion for 2025 if Perez continues his current form, or be completely ousted should Liam Lawson be promoted.
“The shareholders have made it clear that RB F1 is a junior team and that this path will be the way forward,” Marko emphasizes.
“It’s a challenging time for someone like Liam, especially since he jumped into the car under very, very challenging circumstances last year at Zandvoort and performed exceedingly well. We hold him in high regard and he will get his chance. Just wait. In September, when Red Bull’s option on him expires, you will have an answer.”
In the event that Red Bull does not promote Lawson, the New Zealander is almost certain to take the second seat at Audi F1. However, this scenario was contingent on Andreas Seidl and Oliver Hoffman, who have both been ousted and replaced by Mattia Binotto, with Jonathan Wheatley set to join in early 2025.
Why was Perez retained?
Marko explained that Red Bull is optimistic about Perez’s ability to recover from his slump and return to the form that saw him secure four podiums in the first five races.
The Austrian stated that the increasing gap between Perez and Max Verstappen stemmed from the fact that Red Bull’s RB20 has become more challenging to manage in recent weeks.
“We believe we can turn the situation around and make it more stable for him. Being Max’s teammate is not the most pleasant thing in Formula 1. Checo has his merits; he has won races.”
“Our discussion was not only about drivers, we had regular discussions about what we could do to improve the situation. We need to try to make the car easier to drive.”
“The more difficult the car is to drive, the more the gap with Max is felt because he has exceptional talent.”
“If the back moves, he doesn’t lift his foot off the throttle; he just says: ‘Yeah, it’s a bit twitchy,’ ‘it’s difficult,’ or ‘it’s undriveable.'”
“So being next to Max is another story. We therefore said: let’s try to make the car easier to drive, get more balance, which Max also wants, and the best thing to do is to continue with Checo and hope that… the main problem was these highs and lows.”
“He had very good results, very good performances, then the next day, he was about half a second off Max. It’s really due to the car.”
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Red Bull Backs Perez, Marko Questions Ricciardo’s Fit Red Bull Backs Perez, Marko Questions Ricciardo’s Fit
