Christian Horner revealed Purple Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko wished Daniel Ricciardo dropped by RB after June’s Spanish Grand Prix.
After months of hypothesis, Ricciardo was launched by Purple Bull’s junior squad following final month’s Singapore Grand Prix, with Liam Lawson taking his seat for the ultimate six rounds of the 2024 season.
On the time of his dropping, Ricciardo had scored 10 much less factors than his RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who most had anticipated the Australian to outperform.
“I think it was the lack of consistency,” Purple Bull workforce principal Horner instructed the F1 Nation podcast.
“I imply he began the season roughly, then Miami was a weekend of two halves, the Friday and Saturday morning was implausible, and it regarded just like the Daniel of previous, defending in opposition to Ferraris, out-driving the automobile, however then Saturday afternoon and the Sunday have been disastrous.
“Even around Barcelona, Helmut wanted him out of the car, there was already a lot of pressure on him there.”
The transfer seems to be the ultimate act of Ricciardo’s F1 profession as a driver, with the 35-year-old having claimed eight victories in 257 grand prix begins throughout 14 seasons.
Villeneuve feud ‘fired up’ Ricciardo
Ricciardo produced his finest results of the season on the Canadian Grand Prix having been “fired up” by criticism from Sky Sports activities visitor pundit Jacques Villeneuve.
The 1997 world champion questioned whether or not Ricciardo deserved his place on the grid, earlier than he responded by qualifying fifth in Montreal and taking eighth within the race.
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Jacques Villeneuve questioned why Ricciardo was nonetheless driving in F1
“By the time we got to Montreal, it was actually dear old Jacques Villeneuve who got him properly wound up by giving him a hard time,” Horner mentioned.
“And it definitely fired him up, because the way he drove the car that weekend, he grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and put together a very strong race weekend.
“So I did say [to Ricciardo] give Jacques a name each time each grand prix, for the remainder of the 12 months, as a result of no matter he mentioned, it positively labored.”
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Ricciardo was happy to quieten a few of his critics, together with Villeneuve, after qualifying fifth in Canada
Nonetheless, Ricciardo was unable to keep up that type as he adopted up with fifteenth in Spain. He delivered factors in Austria and Belgium earlier than the summer time break however then completed exterior the highest 10 in his closing 4 races with the workforce.
Regardless of Ricciardo’s inconsistency, there remained hypothesis that he could possibly be given a shock promotion to Purple Bull rather than the struggling Sergio Perez, however Horner determined to stay with the Mexican.
“I’ve done my very best to buy him as much time in the car to allow him to deliver, so otherwise he would have been out of the car after Barcelona,” Horner added.
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We check out Ricciardo’s finest bits throughout his F1 profession
“All the drivers are under pressure to deliver but the reason that Daniel was in that car was to get himself back into a position to ultimately be there to pick up the pieces if Checo [Perez] didn’t deliver.
“And the issue was they each had points with type at various instances. Checo began the season very effectively, very strongly and Daniel was struggling, after which as Checo misplaced type Daniel discovered a little bit of type nevertheless it was by no means compelling sufficient to say, ‘okay we should always swap the 2 drivers’.”
Just six races remain in Formula 1 2024 and the season resumes with the United States Grand Prix in Austin from October 18-20, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream each F1 race and extra with a NOW Sports activities Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime
