Daniel Ricciardo has had a nightmare start to the 2024 season. In light of the poor string of results by the Australian driver in the first four races, reports suggest that he has received an ultimatum from the Visa Cash App RB (V-CARB) team.
However, V-CARB’s CEO, Peter Bayer has now come out with a strong denial of these claims. Bayer told Motorsport-Total (as reported by Junaid Samodien on X (formerly Twitter), “These rumors are definitely not true”.
Ricciardo currently sits pointless in 17th in the driver’s standings. In both qualifying and the races, the #3 driver has looked lacking in pace and confidence. As a result, he’s been languishing at the bottom of the pack while his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda has been aiming for points. Hence, if such performances continue into the year, he might as well be facing the axe.
Red Bull and V-CARB are benchmarking the 34-year-old with Tsunoda, who has been in stellar form. The assignment to Ricciardo at the beginning of the season was clear – he has to beat his teammate. However, four races in, he’s been completely outdone by the young Japanese driver instead.
While Ricciardo has been struggling to even get into the points, Tsunoda is slowly closing in on the top 1o in the driver’s championship. His haul of 7 points so far put him just two points away from Lance Stroll in 1oth. Naturally, Red Bull’s ‘audition’ for Ricciardo as a possible replacement for Sergio Perez in 2025 isn’t going all that well, as things stand now.
Is Daniel Ricciardo leaving F1 at the end of 2024?
If the Perth native does lose his seat with V-CARB this year, then, it could effectively be the end to his career in Formula 1. With virtually no seat available elsewhere on the grid for him, V-CARB is his last shot at redemption after his career-threatening stint with McLaren previously.
Many names have cropped up in the discussion for replacing Daniel Ricciardo. However, the prime suspect among them is Liam Lawson. The young Kiwi driver made his debut last year for the team as a replacement for an injured Ricciardo. He impressed the entire paddock with his cameo appearances, even scoring his first points in F1 during the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.
Although, Ricciardo himself doesn’t seem to be stressed by his early season form. Motorsport Week quoted him as saying, “I know it’s 24 races and it’s a long season. I have two good races now all of a sudden, the bad ones would be forgotten.”
The Australian will hope to turn the tide around at the upcoming Chinese GP. He will get a new chassis, as he requested the team to do so. Ricciardo thinks before they tell him that he is underdelivering, they might try to change the chassis if it has any underlying issues,
