Racing Bulls shrugged off the first big criticisms at the start of the season by taking home their first points with Yuki Tsunoda at the Australian Grand Prix, but in Faenza there is a case that stands out and it is the one involving Daniel Ricciardo .
The Australian driver seems distantly related to the one admired in the second part of 2023, once he returned from the hand injury suffered in Zandvoort. This low form of his has triggered several rumors about his present. Some of these would even want him out of the team if he fails to achieve results during the next 2 races.
Laurent Mekies and Peter Bayer, respectively team principal and managing director of Racing Bulls, have denied these rumors and, indeed, have tried to rally around their driver, stating that the team will have to help him to have a set-up more suited to his needs.
“The truth is that we need to give Daniel a car that is closer to his preferences,” Mekies told Motorsport.com. “Yuki, on the other hand, in Australia had a car that was already very close to what he had been asking for since Free Practice 1.”
“Probably with Daniel we only reached a good level in qualifying and we have to start from there. From what we saw in the race, Daniel was able to have a good pace. He was as fast as the riders who took the last points, so he would have fought for points if he had had a decent starting position.”
“This is another positive note that we can take home, that Daniel was able to put together a very competitive race, even if he started from the back.”
Racing Bull CEO Peter Bayer is of the same opinion as Mekies: “I think Daniel misinterpreted the data. We took a look with him to understand.”
“Having said that, let's take home the positive things he showed us. For example, in qualifying he showed very good things. I think that if he had done the good lap in Q1 (then canceled due to track limits, ed.) already on Friday, then he could have built his weekend differently.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing, and Daniel Ricciardo, Visa Cash App RB F1 Team
Photo credit: Mark Sutton
“Honestly, I'm sure that in qualifying he would have been in the Top 10. So it's a positive aspect that we're holding onto and taking home from Australia. It wasn't easy in the race, because Melbourne isn't an easy track to overtake on. He honestly did a good, solid job. We know we can build on what he did in Australia.”
If the leaders of the Faenza team see Ricciardo's difficulties as mainly linked to the technical aspect and confidence with the VCARB 01, Helmut Marko instead thinks that the Australian's problems are very different.
According to Red Bull's super consultant, Daniel's problems come directly from himself. “Daniel's difficulties? It's something mental, because he has proven in the past to be a fast rider. Sometimes these things happen.”
“We brought Daniel back because we thought he could find his old form, so he could be one of the candidates for the Red Bull seat next season, but he's struggling at the moment and we hope he can find his form. But to achieve what tries to beat Tsunoda, and it's not that simple.”
Two very different visions, therefore. Often, however, the truth lies in the middle. Ricciardo certainly struggled to find a structure suited to his needs in the first three outings of the season, but also on a mental level he may not be as free as he was in the second part of last season.
According to what Motorsport.com learned, the Australian did not like the situation that has been raging in Faenza for a few months now, with the team closely linked to Red Bull Racing and a lack of clarity on who actually dictates the team's choices Italian-Austrian team after the departure of Franz Tost and the arrival of the duo of Peter Bayer and Laurent Mekies.
Bayer, former general secretary of the FIA, is a Red Bull man sent to Racing Bulls to be the liaison between the team he controls and the one he controls. Mekies works and directs the team during the race weekends, but in Faenza the directives come from Milton Keynes, also the result of the greater synergy between the two teams announced several months ago and now being strengthened with the passage – among others – of aerodynamicists from the Bicester structure to the Milton Keynes structure.
An uncertainty that does not affect Tsunoda, but which from the beginning of 2024 creates more than one thought for the 34-year-old from Perth. If he really wants to return to Red Bull, however, he will have to put aside his discontent and his discomfort, returning to doing what, in spurts, he showed in 2023. The aspect that could have the greatest impact on this affair, however, is linked to the will of the Milton Keynes team: to date Horner is in no hurry to decide who will be Max Verstappen's new teammate next season.
At the moment Max likes Perez (how could it be otherwise?), because he is unable to bother him in the title fight but is fast enough to guarantee the points needed to win the Constructors' World Championship. The team is also evaluating Carlos Sainz, who will leave Ferrari at the end of the year. This makes it clear that for Ricciardo the road that leads to the Red Bull Technology Center is not only uphill, but currently extremely distant…
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