“Much Bigger Picture:” Christian Horner on Singapore GP Being Daniel Ricciardo’s Last Race

Rumors have been growing around about Daniel Ricciardo’s potential sacking from Red Bull’s sister team VCARB. It is being speculated that the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix will be the Aussie driver’s final Formula 1 race. Red Bull boss Christian Horner has finally opened up about Ricciardo’s career and whether they will sack him before the United States GP.

Even Ricciardo himself has stated that he remains clueless as to what’s about to happen in the three-week break after Singapore and more details will only emerge after this weekend’s race. As the speculations continue to grow around the Honey Badger’s future, Horner told Sky Sports F1,

“These things are under constant review and there is obviously a much bigger picture other than just Daniel as we continue to look at all of our options as we move forward. There’s a natural break coming, with effectively almost a month’s gap to the next race. It’s only natural that you’ll take stock and consider all of those options for the final part of the year“.

q: any truth to lawson’s release clause?
“last year liam was very impressive … dr3’s had a reasonable season, but not stellar. now the question is, how good is liam? sometimes, difficult decisions have to be made in order to get those answers.” pic.twitter.com/HNRHAlIP12

— cam¹⁶ (@LAWSTPNS) September 21, 2024

The appearance of Liam Lawson, who is reportedly going to replace Ricciardo, in the paddock in Singapore has only fueled the rumors even further. However, Horner has clarified that this decision was not to the detriment of Ricciardo.

“It’s not to the detriment of Daniel. We know how he’s performed. We’ve got a lot of data, a lot of knowledge of where Daniel is,” Horner added. Speaking about performances, Ricciardo has shown a few flashes of brilliance of his former self.

However, those have only been few and far between as he has been comprehensively beaten by his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. In terms of the overall picture of the 2024 season, Tsunoda has scored almost double the points (22) than Ricciardo, who currently sits 14th in the standings with just 12 points.