Red Bull have recently confirmed that they’d keep Serigo Perez as their second driver for the rest of the 2024 season. But Helmut Marko has just crushed Daniel Ricciardo’s hopes of ever jumping back in to a Red Bull Formula 1 seat with his latest comments.
Perez' poor form
Sergio Perez had a strong start to the 2024 Formula 1 campaign, taking four podium finishes in the first 5 races. But after Red Bull announced they would renew his contract for 2025 and 2026, his results took a nose dive. Off a cliff.
He’s since scored three 7th place finishes, two 8th places, one 17th and two DNFs. He put it in the gravel at Silverstone and crashed at the Monaco GP.
The result is that McLaren have narrowed the gap to Red Bull in the constructor’s standings to just 42 points, a worringly small gap for a team that have enjoyed nothing but total dominance for the last couple of seasons.
Heading in to the summer break fans and pundits alike speculated, for good reason, that Red Bull could not tolerate Checo’s poor performance any longer. Everyone was expecting him to be kicked out of his Red Bull seat in favour of one of the RB drivers, or reserve driver Liam Lawson.
But less than two weeks in to the quiet period, Red Bull have defied the odds and announced that Perez will be staying put for the rest of the season. In his column for Speedweek, Dr Helmut Marko said:
“Sergio Pérez will continue to drive the Red Bull Racing car after the summer break, as there are now races on tracks where he was good last year and we are counting on stability. He has also shown good performances from time to time, and at the last race weekend in Spa he was very fast on Saturday, finishing third.”
Marko went on to say:
“Pérez doesn’t need to get faster, just more consistent. And given the alternatives, he is still our best solution.”
There was some speculation floating around that Libery Media, F1’s owners, were putting pressure on Red Bull to keep Perez in their seat until his home race at the Mexican Grand Prix in late October.
Whilst Checo is the #2 driver for Red Bull, in Central and large parts of North America he’s unquestionably the #1 driver on the grid. His influence on ticket and merchandise sales cannot be underestimated, and you can understand why Liberty would be so keen for him to remain in the seat come his home race.
But Dr. Helmut Marko also addressed this speculation:
“Reports that his continued commitment is due to Liberty Media’s desire for him to race in Mexico are not true. They certainly want him to race in his home race, but our choice of driver is not based on Liberty Media’s intentions.”
With Perez getting the green light from Red Bull for the rest of 2024, the speculation about which junior team driver would fill his seat has to come to an end for now.
Some had suggested the talented reserve driver Liam Lawson would be the man for the job. Others thought that the seemingly overlooked but fast Yuki Tsunoda would be the right call. And the majority were favouring the experienced Daniel Ricciardo to be promoted from RB.
But now, in a new interview, Ricciardo’s hopes of ever returning to the top team seem to have been dashed even further.
Marko crushes Ricciardo's hopes
Ricciardo has made it fairly clear that his sights are set on returning to Red Bull. But he’s had a challenging start to the 2024 campaign, where after 14 races he’s scored just 12 points with a best result of 8th place at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Those 12 points put him behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the driver’s standings, who’s one place ahead of him with 22 points.
Perez’s poor form and the mounting pressure on the Mexican driver should have, in theory, been the perfect opportunity for Ricciardo to get the promotion back up to Red Bull. But his results haven’t been good enough.
In a new interview with ESPN, Helmut Marko made his position on Ricciardo clear:
“Daniel was put in the car and if he would have been significantly faster than Yuki there was an idea to bring him back to Red Bull Racing,” he said.
Ricciardo’s first job, to stand any chance of the promotion he desires, is to beat his teammate Tsunoda. He failed in 2023 (he finished 17th in the standings, 3 places and 11 points behind Yuki), and so far in 2024 he’s failing again.
Helmut Marko went on to say:
“But he also had this up and down. So, so far, he didn’t fulfil the criteria to be a Red Bull Racing driver.”
That’s a pretty crushing thing for Daniel to hear. Time is running out for the Aussie and now that Perez is staying it’s looking less and less likely that he’ll make it back in to the second Red Bull seat.
Lawson vs Ricciardo
In June this year, Red Bull announced that Yuki Tsunoda would stay with the RB team in 2025. They haven’t announced the same thing for Ricciardo, which suggests the second RB seat will be fought over by Ricciardo and Lawson.
Lawson stood in for Ricciardo for 5 races in 2023 after Daniel broke his hand during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix. Lawson had 5 strong results including one top-ten finish, prompting many to say he was deserving of a full time drive, but it hasn’t yet come.
Whilst Lawson is contracted to Red Bull as their reserve driver, it’s believed that if a decision isn’t made on his future by September he can purse opportunities with other teams. Marko responded with a slightly cryptic statement:
“It’s a tough time for someone like Liam, especially as he jumped into the car under very, very difficult circumstances and did very well. We rate him high and he will get his chance. Just wait. September, you will have an answer.”
Yuki’s already got a seat at RB, so does that mean Lawson’s going to get the other one? And if so where does DR go – Red Bull, or to the retirement home? Less see how the rest of the season plays out…