Daniel Ricciardo sheds light on brutal scrap to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo has opened up about the “relentless” pressure of fearing for his own F1 seat - and battling to claim Sergio Perez’s.

The scrutiny on Red Bull driver Perez has ramped up, despite him being rewarded earlier this year with a new contract, after a series of drab performances.

This weekend’s F1 Hungarian Grand Prix is the final chance for RB’s Ricciardo to put himself in the shop window and tempt Red Bull to make a midseason driver change during the summer break.

Ricciardo was quizzed about taking advantage of Perez’s woes at the Hungaroring, where Crash.net are in the paddock, and he said: “It depends how we are spotlighted in the media, but the truth is every driver is under pressure.

“Even the ones that are killing it, you know, there is then pressure for them to keep performing. So my point is; we all feel it.

“Obviously I've been in the spotlight a bit this year, Checo's in the spotlight.

“Even after my good race in Montreal, I said ‘I need to do another good one because you're only as good as your last race’. One good weekend doesn't quite let you off the hook. It temporarily does, but then it can quickly change.

“Yes, of course, I know I've seen some statistics. Max [Verstappen] has scored a lot more points than Checo.

“And of course, yes, they are expecting a bit more. This is the sport, it's what we're in. We feel it all the time.

“It's just who is the spotlight of the week. Yeah, it's up to us to try to shut it out and it's not easy.

“Sometimes if everyone is just always asking you questions about ‘you have this, you have that’... it feels sometimes very negative or can sometimes feel heavy.

“But in my experience, and I put Checo here as well because he's also been in Formula 1 a similar amount of time, we have dealt with it enough that I think you learn just to focus on the engineering, focus on the car set up. The rest you hear it, but you just have to just roll with it.”

Ricciardo on difficulty of "relentless" rumours

Should Red Bull opt to replace Perez, their likeliest midseason options would come from inside their programme which includes the RB team.

Reserve driver Liam Lawson could be in the mix, alongside RB drivers Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda.

Ricciardo was asked whether it would be ‘strange’ if a driver outside of the Red Bull family was thrust into F1’s most coveted car.

“I don't know,” he said. “I guess the stranger depends, you know, who the stranger is.

“I'm not a junior anymore, but I know how it works, so it's always result driven.

“If we are doing good enough, then we put ourselves in the best seat, in terms of if there is some movement, then we hold the power in our results.

“There's so many things happening in F1, but at the end of the day, it's in our control what we do behind the wheel and what the stopwatch says.

“So try to control the controllables. And I think in that situation, quite a lot is in our hands.”

Ricciardo entered this season as the red-hot favourite to replace Perez in 2025.

But, his poor form and a series of podium finishes for Perez caused Red Bull to hand the Mexican a new deal.

But since then, Perez has experienced a downturn in performances while Ricciardo has shot back into the spotlight over the past four rounds.

However, he admits it can be difficult being questioned about losing your job.

“It can feel relentless, and obviously I experienced it a bit at McLaren,” he said.

“Those media sessions, they're not exactly enjoyable. So, you'd be lying if you said ‘oh, it doesn't bother me’

“You have to accept that and try to then just deal with it. So, it's part of it. I always try to be the bigger person in terms of ‘it's what I signed up for, I'm trying to be the best in the world at something and at times I'll probably fall short and this is now what's going to come with it’.

“You make your own bed and you just have to be okay laying in it sometimes if the sheets aren't made.”