Daniel Ricciardo concedes that his season did not turn out to be promising as he expected after Red Bull overlooked him for 2025 F1 and beyond.
RB’s Daniel Ricciardo acknowledged that he was not pleased with his early-season performance this year, having lost out on a seat with Red Bull for 2025 F1 after they announced a two-year contract extension for Sergio Perez.
Ahead of the 2024 F1 season, Ricciardo was tipped as a major threat to Perez’s seat at Red Bull. He rejoined the team last season initially as a backup driver and was ultimately promoted to their junior squad to take over Nyck de Vries’ seat.
However, Ricciardo has found it challenging to make an impression in 2024 F1, only scoring five points compared to teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s 19 points, so the Australian driver not as surprised when Red Bull decided to retain Perez as Max Verstappen’s teammate.
Although Ricciardo acknowledges that his season hasn’t been particularly impressive, he hasn’t given up on his dream of eventually rejoining the main Red Bull squad.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Ricciardo said about Perez’s new Red Bull deal. “I don’t think it changes anything for me. Obviously, my goal, at some point, I’d love to be back there [at Red Bull].
“But I also know that my season hasn’t been spectacular. I had a spectacular moment I think in Miami, but otherwise, I’ve been a bit up and down. And look, I’ve been doing this long enough, I know myself that I want to be doing better.
“I think already after the first few races, I was just very focused on trying to do the most I can here. And through that, then I’ll have maybe the most control over my future.
“So up until now, yeah, I haven’t probably been awesome enough, but equally, I am happy being here and just being back in the Red Bull family. So we’ll keep charging forward and yeah, I don’t think now it means it will never happen. But we’ll see.”
Now, Ricciardo has to make sure he remains with RB for the 2025 F1. CEO Peter Bayer has stated that the team is very satisfied with Ricciardo and Tsunoda’s pairing, therefore his future chances look good.
“I think we’re very happy with both of our drivers,” he added. “Honestly, we’re not wasting time with discussing ‘ifs’ and ‘whens.’
“We have a very strong lineup. We have a great reserve driver [Liam Lawson]. We have great talent coming through F2, F3.”
After winning the Canadian Grand Prix in 2014, Ricciardo will be looking for a better performance this time round.
