RB driver Daniel Ricciardo says he does not want to be given another season in F1 by Red Bull unless he feels he has earned it.
The veteran driver sits 12th in the drivers’ championship on nine points, ten fewer than team mate Yuki Tsunoda, after the first ten rounds of the season.Tsunoda has already secured a contract extension which will keep at at RB until the end of 2025. But Ricciardo’s future is unclear. The team is also considering Liam Lawson for the second RB seat, according to Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko.
Ricciardo scored his first top 10 finish in a grand prix this year in the last round in Canada. Speaking in today’s FIA press conference ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, Ricciardo said he only has his eyes on remaining with RB.
“Canada obviously helps – as I said, I needed a result like that,” Ricciardo said.
“Obviously I would like to stay. Now that I’m back in that Red Bull family, I really don’t see myself anywhere else. So that’s where I’d love to stay and continue.
“I also said before the weekend in Canada that I obviously want to earn it – I don’t just want it to be ‘okay, stay another year’. I want to be here because I know that I still belong here and can do performances like I did last weekend.
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“So it’s also up to me just to make sure that I can keep pulling it out. In that case, I’ll be very happy to stay.”
Despite the lack of points finishes compared to his team mate, Ricciardo believes his performances have not been reflected in where he has finished.
“The result always helps. The feeling hasn’t been too far off. I think it’s just where I’ve crossed the finish line, that hasn’t always been where I obviously want to be.
“But I don’t think it’s been far off. Obviously in Canada, from Friday practice we were on the front foot and we continued that all through the weekend. We hadn’t had one of those weekends in a long time – or I hadn’t – so it was nice just to start good and end good.
“The team’s been great with updates and I think the car has definitely made some steps forward. So I have confidence we can have more of those weekends in the next few and be there more consistently.”
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Retired (@jeff1s)
20th June 2024, 16:55
Nobody gaf about this clown, JV was right he just wrongly expressed it.
As much as I like the former, get rid of the Bottas and the Ricciardo just-for-fun, the Perez, the Zhou, the Sargeant, the Tsunoda, the Ocon, the Stroll, the Gasly, the Magnussen, the Hulkenberg : well more than half the field.
Riker (@corsair)
20th June 2024, 22:30
You should stay retired
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st June 2024, 0:48
Nowadays I’m not sure which proven driver in other series would do better than all of them.
Mayrton
21st June 2024, 7:30
That’s why I would have loved to see the F1 Driver academy to be more diverse. It should promote ‘talent’ as the current available drivers in various categories is just a sub part of society and clearly doesn’t deliver the level we need.
SteveP
20th June 2024, 17:05
If he’s totally honest with himself, he should realise that he ought to have retired out of F1 from McLaren.
Maybe race in other formats, or whatever he has planned for his post racing life.
Mayrton
21st June 2024, 7:32
Yes, the story around him is getting rather old and boring now. Time to move on.
Edvaldo
20th June 2024, 17:21
By this point i think it’s clear that talk of Red Bull recovering him from his slump was indeed just talk.
Francesco (@schivo69)
20th June 2024, 18:39
Unfortunately he has been chosen for his marketing appeal and his clownesque personality. His character gave exposure to RB, Horner just exploited the added value of the funny ‘persona’ that DTS built around him. TBH I started to dislike him when he tried to wind up Hulkenberg, faking a German accent in front of the cameras, that showed how he lost contact with reality. Everything else is only a marketing ploy, at the moment Ricciardo comeback hasn’t materialised yet.
Nick T.
20th June 2024, 21:05
Ricciardo would be much closer to Yuki if not for Lance smashing into DR in China and the incident in Japan with Albon and Yuki is being praised as having one of the best drives on the grid. So, this narrative that DR is driving like a Stroll is ridiculous. He’s basically being judged as if he’s not driving close to where he was when he was easily one of F1’s top 3-4 drivers, he’s terrible. There are a number of worse drivers on the grid and not enough good prospects to replace them all.
Hating Ricciardo seems to be all en vogue right now and it seems to be driven by the idea that he is holding back Lawson (if he’s that good, another team will sign him) whose credentials are solid at best.
MichaelN
21st June 2024, 0:30
Maybe not all, but how much more of a Magnussen, a Bottas, a Ricciardo, a Gasly, etc. does F1 want to see? That there was zero turn-over this year is very disappointing when the grid is filled with so many spent forces, or guys that plateaued years ago.
It’d be great to see a whole bunch of new guys in. I won’t pretend to follow F2 in any real sense, but surely there must be a couple among the last few years’ top five finishers to give a go.
Ross
21st June 2024, 3:41
Plus 1. Ric is by far the worst performing teammate on the grid. People just seem incensed that the guy has a personality.
Ross
21st June 2024, 3:41
Far from the worst performing teammate. Damn no edit button.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st June 2024, 5:59
Wow, so you wrote the opposite of what you meant, and I actually thought you were anti-ricciardo upon reading that, if that’s not proof an edit button is needed I don’t know what is!
Dale
20th June 2024, 21:47
He should never have been brought back in the first place.
There are now a long list of recent F2 champions who don’t have a seat in F1 and deserve it more than a guy getting a 4th, 5th chance at it. Unfortunately Red Bull will only place their own juniors in this team though, and none of them deserve a seat ahead of those F2 championship winners.
Same scenario with Magnussen hogging a seat at Haas.