Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko wanted Daniel Ricciardo out of the RB seat after the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, Christian Horner has revealed.
Ricciardo’s F1 career appears to be over after RB chiefs decided to replace him with Liam Lawson for the remainder of this campaign.
It brings to an end a hugely successful career for the Australian, who won eight races for the Red Bull and McLaren teams.
But while there has been some criticism aimed at Red Bull for not allowing Ricciardo to see out the season, Horner has offered some fresh insight into the battle he faced to even keep him in the RB seat up until now.
Speaking to the F1 Nation podcast in the wake of the RB driver shuffle, Horner said that Ricciardo’s exit had been triggered by a lack of consistency – that had already tested Marko’s patience earlier in the campaign.
“He [Ricciardo] started the season roughly, and then Miami was a weekend of two halves,” said Horner. “The Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic, and it looked like the Daniel of old defending against the Ferraris and outdriving 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 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 said Ricciardo’s fate was effectively sealed by him not hitting the peaks of form that his bosses wanted from him to show he deserved a return to the Red Bull squad.
Although Sergio Perez’s repeated frustrations left his position in doubt, Ricciardo never did enough to be an automatic candidate to slot in as replacement.
Horner added: “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.
“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, we should switch the two drivers'.”
Horner has also explained that the decision to get Lawson racing immediately is all about ensuring Red Bull knows what the New Zealander is capable of as the team weighs up what to do with Perez on the long term.
“We need answers for the bigger picture in terms of drivers,” said Horner. “With six races remaining, it's the perfect opportunity to line Liam up alongside Yuki [Tsunoda] to see how he performs over the remaining six grands prix.”
He added: “This goes beyond VCARB. It encompasses Red Bull Racing. Obviously, we've got a contract with Sergio for next year, but you've always got to have an eye out in terms of what comes next.
“And is that going to be Liam, or do we need to look outside the pool? Or will one of the other juniors step up in the fullness of time of this, like Isack Hadjar or Arvid Lindblad?”
