Let’s be clear: Helmut Marko ultimately got what he wanted, with Daniel Ricciardo’s farewell to Racing Bulls coming after the Singapore Grand Prix. Yet he had to wait several months for his plan to take shape.
Yes, because for several weeks the Red Bull Racing super consultant had been pushing to offload the Australian driver, ditching him during the works – as happened a few days ago – but already in the first part of the current season.
Christian Horner revealed this background. The Red Bull Racing team principal, speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, stated that the Austrian manager tried to push for the dismissal of the former Red Bull driver as early as the end of the Spanish Grand Prix due to lack of results.
“Him [Ricciardo] started the season rough, and then Miami was a halfway weekend,” Horner said. “Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic, he looked like the Daniel of the past defending against the Ferraris and driving the car.”
“But then Saturday afternoon and Sunday were disastrous. So, even in Barcelona, Helmut wanted him out of the car and there was already a lot of pressure on him.”
Daniel Ricciardo, Visa Cash App RB F1 Team
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“When we got to Montreal, it was good old Jacques Villeneuve who pissed him off and gave him a hard time, and that definitely turned him on, because the way he drove the car that weekend, he took it for granted. scruff and put together a very strong race weekend.”
“So I said [a Ricciardo] to call Jacques at every grand prix, for the rest of the year, because whatever he said, it worked.”
Ricciardo, over the course of the season, had the objective of doing well to try to wrest the Red Bull seat from Sergio Perez. But at that moment he found himself in difficulty having to defend his own instead.
“I did my best to get him all the time he needed in the car to allow him to do well,” Horner continued. “Otherwise he would have been out of the car after Barcelona.”
“All drivers are under pressure to get results, but the reason Daniel stayed in the car was to put himself in a position to pick up the pieces if Checo didn’t deliver.”
“The problem is that they both had form problems at different times. Checo started the season very well, very strong, while Daniel was in difficulty. Then, of course, when Checo lost form, Daniel found some form. But he was never convincing enough to say ‘ok, we should change the two drivers’.”
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