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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner recently claimed that the team's senior advisor, Helmut Marko, wanted Daniel Ricciardo to be removed from RB after the Spanish GP itself.
Since the start of the 2024 F1 season, Ricciardo's potential replacement has been a subject of conversation, especially because he found it difficult to keep up with teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Furthermore, Red Bull had a reputation for quickly rotating drivers who weren't performing well. Several rumors suggested that the Honey Badger would be removed from the team after the Singapore GP and be replaced by their reserve driver, Liam Lawson.
However, Horner revealed that the Australian could have been removed before that. Speaking on F1 Nation, he talked about Ricciardo's performance in Miami GP, after which discussions took place about replacing him. He then claimed that Marko wanted to remove Daniel Ricciardo from RB after Barcelona itself.
“I mean, he started the season roughly, and then Miami was a weekend of two halves. The Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic. It looked like Daniel was defending against the Ferraris and out-driving the car. But then the Saturday afternoon and the Sunday were disastrous. And even around Barcelona, Helmut wanted him out of the car, and there was already a lot of pressure on him there,” Horner said (at 9:30 of the podcast).
The Red Bull team boss then added that he defended Daniel Ricciardo and tried to give the Australian as much time as possible to perform.
“I’ve done my very best to buy him as much time in the car to allow him to deliver, otherwise he would have been out of the car after Barcelona," he added (10:50).
Red Bull team head on how former F1 world champion pumped up Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner recently claimed how former F1 world champion, Jacques Villeneuve's criticism towards Daniel Ricciardo pushed the Australian to perform well in the Canadian GP.
Speaking to Sky Sports during the race at Montreal, Villeneuve questioned why Ricciardo was still racing in F1 and said that if the driver cannot compete well in F1, he can leave to make room for other younger drivers.
“Why is he still in F1? We’re hearing the same thing now for the last four, five years — we have to make it better for him, poor him. It’s been five years of that," Villenueve said.
"Can’t cut it? Go home, there’s someone else who can take your place," he added.
After Daniel Ricciardo was removed from RB, Christian Horner addressed how Jacques Villeneuve fired up Ricciardo and how the Australian had a great race weekend at the Canadian GP. The Honey Badger qualified in P5, which was his best race start in 2024, and finished the race in P8.
"It's actually dear old Jacques Villeneuve got him properly wound up by giving him a hard time. And it definitely fired him up, because the way he drove the car that weekend, he grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and put together a very strong race weekend. So I did say that give Jacques a call every Grand Prix for the rest of the year because whatever he said he definitely worked," Horner said at 10:06 of the podcast.
As of now, Daniel Ricciardo has not officially talked about what his future holds after he was removed from RB. Meanwhile, Liam Lawson is about to start his F1 journey as a permanent driver from the US GP.
