F1 | Racing Bulls: ultimatum to Ricciardo. Lawson at the window

Daniel Ricciardo is certainly not doing well. The first 4 outings of the 2024 season told of a driver who returned to experiencing various difficulties in obtaining results, outclassed by a teammate who was certainly fast, but did not have the same pedigree or experience.

Let's say it right away, it's not just a question of the car. The adaptation to VCARB 01 is proving more complicated than expected, but the single-seater built in Faenza is still good enough to guarantee a points finish on some occasions. Yuki Tsunoda knows something about this, as up to now he has collected 7 points against the Australian's zero.

A Daniel Ricciardo, the one of 2024, very similar to the apathetic, breathless and declining one seen in McLaren rather than to the one who once again thrilled Christian Horner in a test carried out just under a year ago at Silverstone which then allowed him to return starter in Formula 1 with AlphaTauri taking the place of the disappointing Nyck De Vries.

Zero points in 4 races and a moment of difficulty which culminated last weekend with his retirement after a few hundred meters at the Japanese Grand Prix due to a contact – correctly judged by the stewards as a race contact – with the innocent Alexander Albon.

Helmut Marko often has Ricciardo in his post-race arguments. His point of view is the following: Daniel has problems that are not attributable to adaptation to VCARB 01, but to the purely mental aspect. It is no coincidence that Ricciardo has been impatient for some time now, even before the start of the season, with the situation in which Racing Bulls finds itself.

The Faenza team has a new team principal, Laurent Mekies, after many years in which it was led by Franz Tost. The presence of Peter Bayer certifies how much Red Bull wants to control the Italian-Austrian team and that everything depends on Milton Keynes, especially in the person of Christian Horner, who however ended up under investigation by the team for a complaint from an employee which then ended in a nothing done.

In short, Ricciardo is experiencing another full-blown moment of difficulty. At McLaren he terminated his contract a year before its natural expiry, while now he is in the middle of a different situation. The handle of the knife is in the hands of Red Bull Racing and, according to Motorsport.com, the 34-year-old has been given an ultimatum.

If he fails to achieve better results – taking home points and at least approaching Tsunoda's performance – then substitution during the season would become a reality. Red Bull's top management will wait until the summer, so Daniel will still have time, but Liam Lawson's shadow has once again become looming and ever heavier.

The 22-year-old New Zealander, already a starter in Formula 1 last year to replace the injured Ricciardo after the Zandvoort accident, is the main candidate to take his place. Last year Liam thought he had shown enough to deserve reconfirmation, but Horner pushed to get Ricciardo back in the starting lineup and so it happened.

Now the situation could be reversed, with Ricciardo in the balance and Lawson waiting, ready to seize the second opportunity of his career and determined, this time too, never to leave it again.