As rumours swirl, Daniel Ricciardo hopes to ‘stay smiling’ after RB’s fast start

Daniel Ricciardo hopes to “stay smiling” after RB made an impressive start to the F1 Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

Both RB drivers featured inside the top-10 in both of Friday’s practice sessions on what marked a hugely encouraging and eye-catching start to the weekend in Singapore.

Yuki Tsunoda ended FP2 in the top-four, while Ricciardo finished sixth - just 0.004s slower than McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who sandwiched the two RBs.

“It was a really good day for both of us, as a team,” Ricciardo told F1TV.

“We were fourth and sixth this afternoon. There were four of us within two hundredths of a second, it’s really close.

“We are pretty happy with the car, with some fine-tuning.

“It was nice to see ourselves up at the pointy end. It looks like we’ve got a decent package here.

“The last time we had high downforce was Zandvoort, and Budapest. We were competitive there. Maybe [this track] is more suited to our car, running the bigger wings and this style of circuit.

“We actually thought we’d be good in Baku but we weren’t, with low downforce.

“The high downforce set-up is maybe kinder to us. Hopefully it remains tomorrow, we can stay smiling and saying ‘you beauty!’”

Ricciardo and RB’s uplift in performance comes on a weekend there has been intense speculation about the 35-year-old Australian’s future.

Ricciardo is in competition with Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson for the final RB seat alongside Tsunoda for 2025, but there have been suggestions he may even be dropped in time for the next race.

He admitted on Thursday that he cannot say for sure if he will retain his seat, but expects an answer following this weekend’s race in Singapore.

Sky Sports F1 co-commentator Martin Brundle is adamant Singapore will be Ricciardo’s final appearance in his race seat.

“My understanding is that Daniel won’t be in the car in Austin at the next grand prix, but will remain in the Red Bull pool,” Brundle said.

“They want to see how Liam Lawson goes, for a number of reasons. If Daniel had a stronger season, it would have made a big difference. Not just in the secondary team at RB but in the primary team at Red Bull.

“It hasn’t gone as well as he wanted. I don’t expect him in the car in Austin.”