Daniel Ricciardo’s start to the 2024 season has been woeful. Heading into the campaign with hopes of impressing Red Bull, Ricciardo has failed to score a single point in his first three races. His performances have come as a shock to everyone, especially after his impressive showing in the latter part of 2023. Even his former Renault teammate Nico Hulkenberg cannot make “sense” of this downfall.
Ricciardo and Hulkenberg spent one year as teammates at Renault. Good relationship off the track and banter aside, Hulkenberg always recognized how talented Ricciardo was, which is why he doesn’t understand what went wrong. As quoted by Formula Passion, the German said,
“They don’t really make sense and I don’t understand it. In 2019 he was very competitive. Since then, however, he has struggled, even in McLaren and even with the old cars.”
Ricciardo hasn’t even been able to perform at the level of his V-CARB teammate Yuki Tsunoda. The Australian is yet to make a Q3 appearance in 2024, whereas Tsunoda put his car into Q1 and started Ricciardo’s home race from P8. Considering Ricciardo has repeatedly reiterated the fact that he feels at home with Red Bull/V-CARB, his performance seems unjustifiable to the general public.
Back at Renault or McLaren, the 34-year-old struggled to gel in, with the car and the environment. He always had problems fitting in, and that led to a certain unhappiness within. Thus, when Red Bull came calling, things took a positive turn for the Australian. However, it is no time for Ricciardo to rejoice as Helmut Marko recently fired warning shots at Ricciardo, asking him to improve. Should the Honey Badger fail to achieve the same, he might face the same fate, as so many have over the last few years.
Daniel Ricciardo walking on thin ice at Red Bull
Ricciardo has a two-pronged fork working against him at the moment. The first prong is his poor performance and form. Meanwhile, the other prong is Liam Lawson. Ricciardo’s temporary replacement for 2023 quickly became the talk of the town, and the F1 community hasn’t forgotten him yet.
It is no surprise that Red Bull wants to bring the New Zealand driver over to the F1 grid, and the best way to do it would be via their sister team. As such, Ricciardo might have to leave V-CARB to make way for him.
A possible prevention of the move could come in the form of Yuki Tsunoda moving to Aston Martin. Several reports claimed that there were links between Tsunoda and Aston Martin, especially because of Honda’s planned partnership with the Silverstone-based outfit. But the Japanese driver dismissed all claims to avoid any misunderstandings with his current employers.
Regardless, Ricciardo’s best chance at saving his Red Bull future lies with himself. The Perth-born driver has to put in extra work to improve, and get out of the hole he finds himself in.
