Daniel Ricciardo started the 2024 season full of hope that he could find his way back to Red Bull. But pretty soon, he found a knife hanging over his shoulders, with each wrong move and poor result adding to rumors of him getting sacked. As it turns out, Ricciardo’s fate was sealed very early on and one of his confidantes recently confessed about the same on a lighter note.
Ricciardo lost his place at RB last month, with Red Bull — its parent team — opting to place Liam Lawson in his stead. It came as a surprise to many, especially since just six races were remaining in the campaign. However, The Race’s Scott Mitchell-Malm revealed why it was not.
On their podcast, Mitchell-Malm spoke to someone close to Ricciardo after the Honey Badger’s exit. He jokingly told the journalist, “We’ve been sacked since April.”
BREAKING: Daniel Ricciardo to leave RB, the team has announced#F1 pic.twitter.com/dWK02446hM
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 26, 2024
This was a direct reference to Red Bull chief Helmut Marko’s constant jibes aimed at Ricciardo throughout the season. The Austrian advisor was not happy with Ricciardo’s performances, and almost every time he was asked about the Perth-born driver’s future, he would give ominous statements that hinted at him being fired.
Per reports, had it been up to Marko, Ricciardo would have been booted out much earlier around the Spanish GP. Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner admitted that he held Marko back from doing so because he wanted the 35-year-old to put up a fight. Mitchell-Malm, however, felt it should have been handled differently.
Red Bull leaders were not “aligned”
Mitchell-Malm recalled that almost all of Ricciardo’s exit rumors had Marko at the epicenter. It was clear he wasn’t happy, and per the F1 expert, this is something Red Bull should have spoken about ahead of the start of the season.
Ricciardo made a return to F1 (after spending several months apart) towards the end of 2023. He joined AlphaTauri (now RB) and had a difficult end to his season — aggravated by a wrist injury.
“If you were going to do that [sack Ricciardo], leadership should have been aligned over the winter,” Mitchell-Malm said.
He then deemed Horner’s decision to prevent Ricciardo from being axed as “okay”. Per him, since Red Bull had decided to sign him for the 2024 season, they should have let him see it through. Unfortunately for Ricciardo, they didn’t — highlighting the “chaos” at Milton-Keynes, Mitchell-Malm concluded.
