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Daniel Ricciardo shed light on 2024 and revealed how his season has turned upside down. The Visa Cash App RB driver went through a rough patch initially but gained momentum as he made sure he delivered when it mattered.
Ricciardo is on a full-time contract at RB this season after he replaced underperforming Nyck de Vries mid-season last year. However, the Honey Badger failed to justify his replacement on more than one occasion and was on the brink of being axed.
However, he recovered brilliantly, picked up points in RB, and potentially cemented his place at the Red Bull's sister team, for at least this season. Although he admitted that he could not "pull off the awesomeness week-in, week-out," the journey was more or less positive.
"It's more positive than negative because you go through and I'm sure any athlete goes through that career and at some point it is gonna go, you get old and whatever happens your reflexes slow down or whatever," Daniel Ricciardo said. (via Sky Sports F1)
"There is a day where I won't be able to do as good, but I would much rather have these fanatically sporadic days because to prove and show to myself that I've still got the capability to do something pretty great and then it's up to me to make sure I'm able to unlock it [performance] more often, but the stopwatch is the biggest thing in this sport and that's probably what I'm trying to say." (0:36)
Ricciardo finished the 2023 season in P17 with six points. Compared to his teammate, Tsunoda was in P14 with 17 points. Coming into 2024, Ricciardo is in P13 of the Drivers' Championship and claimed 11 points in 12 races.
Yuki Tsunoda is in P12 with 20 points. The former Red Bull driver came home with points in Miami, Montreal, and Spielberg, where he finished in P8, P8, and P14, respectively.
Daniel Ricciardo shared his take on a possible Red Bull switch
Paddock chatters suggest that Red Bull might swap Sergio Perez with Daniel Ricciardo mid-season, or in 2025 amid the series of underwhelming performances by the Mexican driver. Amid this, Ricciardo's performance in RB impressed the top brass of Red Bull.
Perez has been on a spree of poor shows this season. Despite starting the season formidably, Checo fell from grace and is now on the brink of losing his seat. Even though he has a multi-year contract with the Austrian team till the end of 2026, clauses inside the contract can prevent his two-year stay.
When asked if he could replace Perez at Red Bull anytime soon, the Honey Badger declined to make any predictions.
"I would never make any predictions in this sport," Daniel Ricciardo told the media (via PlanetF1). "I feel like every year that this sport goes on, the more it gets. I know it goes in the trend of the sport is getting bigger. It’s becoming more Hollywood, so to speak, in terms of the profile the sport has and also the narrative that runs with the sport now and certainly more Hollywood in terms of. It’s so unpredictable."
Liam Lawson is another driver who is waiting in the wings for his F1 break. He made a cameo as Ricciardo's replacement last year when the Australian driver was injured and managed to grab the attention of Red Bull bosses. It will be interesting to see where he lands at the end of the season.
