Three races into the 2024 season, Daniel Ricciardo remains point-less and is being thoroughly outperformed by teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Doubts have started to arise about his future with V-CARB but ESPN‘s Nate Saunders understands that a $35 million link between Ricciardo and the team is the primary reason behind Red Bull not pulling the plug on his tenure.
In 2023, Ricciardo was tipped to be the best option to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull. A successful full season with V-CARB was perhaps the first (and even the final) step before a glorious homecoming. However, his hopes are turning into dust following a dismal start to the season. A report by the New Zealand Herald also says that Ricciardo has been given just two races to improve (Japan and China). If he fails, Red Bull could replace him with Liam Lawson.
However, should the move happen, Red Bull could lose as much as $35 million. Their sister team’s title partnership with Visa and CashApp worth $35 million has a lot to do with Ricciardo. CAA Sports represents the driver, which was also responsible for brokering the sponsorship deal. Per Saunders’ report, Ricciardo’s presence in the team helped increase the original amount.
Although the title partners do not have the power to block a driver’s move, the importance of the deal has Ricciardo under a protective spell. It helped Red Bull hold on to the team by giving out title partnership instead of selling the entire setup.
However, it doesn’t mean Ricciardo is invincible. He needs to improve on his pace and do a better job on race weekends. If not, V-CARB will likely not want to lose out on points and results to hold on to their sponsors in the long run.
Daniel Ricciardo points out newer struggles
Ricciardo opted to leave Red Bull in 2019 and has been struggling with his form ever since. Despite winning a race with McLaren, his stint in Woking (2021-2022) was far from ideal. He started looking like only a shell of his former self, and self-doubts plagued the Perth-born driver. A year and a half later, Ricciardo finds himself in a similar situation with V-CARB. However, speaking to the F1 media after the race in Australia, Ricciardo detailed how things are different from 2022.
In 2022, Ricciardo felt “very, very low” on confidence. He had a hard time understanding the McLaren car, which added to his struggles with the team.
However, with V-CARB, the struggle is different. The team is unable to understand the reason behind his issues, given the car hasn’t changed much from last year. So far, they haven’t been able to achieve what they expected. Nonetheless, Ricciardo remains optimistic about turning things around by not letting the “noise creep in.”
