Christian Horner reveals Helmut Marko wanted Daniel Ricciardo out in June
Red Bull boss Christian Horner reveals Helmut Marko wanted to replace Daniel Ricciardo after the Spanish GP.
Helmut Marko wanted to drop Daniel Ricciardo after the Spanish Grand Prix in June, Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner has revealed.
Ricciardo has lost his seat at Red Bull’s sister team RB after a spate of underwhelming performances this season, with reserve driver Liam Lawson stepping in to contest the final six races of the year.
Speaking to the F1 Nation podcast after the announcement of the driver shuffle, Horner admitted that Red Bull motorsport advisor Marko felt Ricciardo should have been replaced much earlier this campaign.
“I think it was the lack of consistency,” Horner said of Red Bull’s decision.
“He started the season roughly, and then Miami was a weekend of two halves. The Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic, and it looked like the Daniel of old, defending against Ferraris and out-driving the car.
“But then the Saturday afternoon and the Sunday were disastrous. So even around Barcelona, Helmut wanted him out of the car, and there was already a lot of pressure on him, on him there.
“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, 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 call every time every grand prix, for the rest of the year, because whatever he said, it definitely worked.”
Horner insisted he did his best to give eight-time grand prix winner Ricciardo, whose F1 career now appears to be over, time to turn things around.
“I’ve done my very best to buy him as much time in the car to allow him to deliver, otherwise he would have been out of the car after Barcelona,” he added.
“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 didn’t deliver.
“The problem was they both had issues with form at varying times. Checo started the season very well, very strongly, and Daniel was struggling.
“And then obviously, as Checo lost form, Daniel found a bit of form, but it was never compelling enough to say, ‘Okay, you know, we should switch the two drivers.’”
