Disappointing Ricciardo doesn’t deserve to be dropped from the team at the start of 2024

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo’s gambit failed. But not enough to deserve the current uncertainty surrounding his immediate future, let alone being sidelined for six Formula 1 races before the end of 2024.

Ricciardo is not performing well in Red Bull’s second team, contrary to his own and his employer’s expectations.

He was brought in to be a long-term option for Red Bull Racing, a backup if Sergio Perez continued to struggle. Ricciardo himself had this dream comeback in mind and thought he would prove he could still operate at the forefront of F1 after two increasingly difficult years at McLaren had left him on the sidelines.

Unfortunately, Ricciardo was OK, nothing more. Occasional impressive highs – like fourth in the Miami sprint, his overall weekend in Canada and qualifying in Hungary – and occasional anonymous weekends canceled each other out, leaving behind a series of slightly inconsistent performances and slightly disappointing results.

But that wasn’t drastically different to Yuki Tsunoda, given that RB’s competitiveness had declined in midfield and his development had been uneven at best. And while qualifying in Singapore was a return to the sort of nose-bleeding results against teammate Ricciardo that he had all but disowned, it would be incredibly harsh to suggest that Ricciardo’s form had been so poor that he needed to be dropped from the squad.

Yet that is exactly what Red Bull seems to be considering. Red Bull bosses Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, and Ricciardo’s immediate team boss Laurent Mekies, have had ample opportunity this weekend to state categorically that Ricciardo will not be sidelined for the four-week September/October break.

They didn’t. They did almost the opposite – they left the door wide open to drop Ricciardo in favour of Liam Lawson.

There may be some logic to that. If Ricciardo’s time is up at the end of the year and Lawson is the future, then it’s worth looking into. But the logic doesn’t seem so clear-cut. Not least of all because there’s talk of Lawson needing to be assessed or put in the car to get answers. But what more could Red Bull want to know about a driver who already replaced Ricciardo last season and did so well?

This points to further, wider uncertainty. Maybe Lawson will get a chance at RB to make the case for Sergio Perez’s place at Red Bull in 2025? It’s all rather unclear.

In terms of performance, it makes little sense. RB are clinging to sixth in the championship, and qualifying in Singapore was the first time in months that Ricciardo has squandered an obvious opportunity to do better. This is not a Logan Sargeant-style situation where Williams were finally forced to drop a driver who was nowhere near the required level.

There is no clear reason why Ricciardo should be removed from the squad due to results. Now. Or to think that Lawson would come in and immediately make a significant promotion.

In terms of preparing for the future, that’s fine. But if that’s the case, why hesitate? The decision should have already been made. Why keep Ricciardo in such uncertainty? Why subject him to a weekend of awkward questions, throw shade at him and potentially let him run his last race… without him knowing?

A driver of his stature, who has given so much to Red Bull, deserves more than a sad ending, even if his career is coming to an end. His performances do not deserve the shame of being sidelined mid-season.

All signs point to this being a consequence of the wider Red Bull driver turmoil, which is an argument for another time. Ricciardo may, rightly, not have much of a future at Red Bull.

But that the narrative has reached this point is inappropriate and unfair, even by the strict standards of mid-season driver changes.