Daniel Ricciardo was considered to be Sergio Perez’s replacement at Red Bull before the summer break. However, within a few months, the Aussie was sacked in favor of Liam Lawson. Reports suggest that Christian Horner wanted Ricciardo in the Red Bull seat but Perez’s sponsorship reportedly stopped that decision. F1 expert Tim Hauraney now suggests that Marko never got over Ricciardo’s 2018 shenanigans.
On the Nailing the Apex podcast, Hauraney was asked why Red Bull let go of Ricciardo. The F1 expert explained how Marko really believes in Lawson’s potential. He also suggested that Marko was still unhappy about Ricciardo leaving Red Bull in 2018.
Helmut Marko explains why Ricciardo’s return to Red Bull failed
“I think it was clearly communicated that he has to be significantly better than Yuki Tsunoda and he only managed that in a few races, so it was clear that this story of the prodigal son re-joining Red Bull Racing… pic.twitter.com/G40cblEdHR
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) September 26, 2024
Ricciardo left Red Bull at the end of 2018 to join Renault despite giving his word to Marko and the late Dietrich Mateschitz. Hauraney said, “I think that Helmut Marko never really got over how Daniel left to go to Renault. They had a handshake deal that Ricciardo was going to stick around.”
Max Verstappen gave the then-number one driver at Red Bull — Ricciardo a run for his money during the 2018 season. The Dutchman outscored the Aussie by 79 points and finished P4 compared to Ricciardo in P6. Although the Honey Badger was still Red Bull’s lead man, Verstappen’s form suggested that it wasn’t going to stick for long.
Ricciardo rolled the dice and signed with Renault, who reportedly offered him a better package as well. Unfortunately, the move backfired and the Aussie’s career took a downward trajectory since he made the Renault move.
Another reason for Ricciardo’s sacking might be the fact that RB is about nurturing young talent for the bigger team. Marko has a huge number of talented drivers in line including Isack Hadjar who’s in the 2024 F2 title race as well.
Some reports suggest that Lawson has been subbed in for the last quarter of the season to see if he’s performing at the level to get promoted to the senior team.
