Co-Author: Chiara Martin
As things shake up in the Red Bull family of drivers once again, Helmut Marko has weighed in on the latest swap.
The unsurprising news has finally come out: Daniel Ricciardo has been removed from his RB F1 drive, and Liam Lawson gets his time in the spotlight with a full-time F1 seat, albeit it is only for the remainder of the 2024 season as things stand.
While Ricciardo is one of the most-liked and popular drivers on the grid, his level of driving and performance in recent years has been what it one was during his time at Red Bull Racing and Renault. While he did in fact win in 2021 after leaving the Red Bull family for the first time — taking out a memorable win at Monza in the McLaren — his return to the family has not gone as well as hoped.
Marko took the time to explain the decision as to why they removed Ricciardo from his seat, highlighting that Yuki Tsunoda outperformed Ricciardo since the driver from Perth returned in 2023.
Ricciardo’s race performances this year have generally been strong. Unfortunately for him, Tsunoda delivered in qualifying big style when the car was at its fastest, meaning the Japanese driver outscored him in 2023 and 2024.
The highlight of the Australian’s return came in the Sprint in Miami, superbly holding off Carlos Sainz for P4. But to have secured the Red Bull seat, he was required to beat Tsunoda on a consistent basis.
“I think it was clearly communicated that he had to perform significantly better than Yuki Tsunoda. And he only managed that in a few races—if I recall correctly, he had a fourth place in the sprint race [in Miami].
“But otherwise, Yuki was the stronger driver, and it was clear that this comeback story of the prodigal son returning to Red Bull Racing unfortunately didn’t work out.”
Marko was pushed on whether this was some kind of revenge for 2018 when Ricciardo stunned the F1 world by leaving Red Bull Racing to join Renault at the time.
Since becoming Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2006, the junior team has been stacked with young drivers who got evaluated regarding a promotion to Red Bull Racing.
However, with a lack of a generational talent coming through in recent years, they turned to Nyck de Vries initially, and then the Australian, as they put experienced names alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
RB looks set to return to its roots as Marko name checked Ayumu Iwasa (23) and Isack Hadjar (19) as potential candidates for a future drive.
The Austrian also confirmed Lawson was brought in to evaluate how the lineup’s should look at both teams in 2025, suggesting Sergio Pérez is far from safe in his seat.
“No, not at all. Ricciardo was brought back because he had shown the necessary performance at Racing Bulls.
“But you have to see it in a broader context. We have a good pool of talent with Lawson, Iwasa, and Hadjar—though this isn’t a ranking order. We need to look to the future.
“We wanted a comparison between Lawson and Yuki [Tsunoda] so that we know what our driver lineup should look like for the future across both teams.”
