VCARB Takes Responsibility For Situation That Led To Daniel Ricciardo's F1 Exit

Saajan Jogia | 16 Hours Ago

Jun 7, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; RB driver driver Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) in the pit lane during the practice session at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images / Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

VCARB team principal Laurent Mekies has explained how the team was responsible for handing Daniel Ricciardo an inconsistent car that led to his departure after the Singapore Grand Prix. Mekies acknowledged Ricciardo's crucial technical inputs to the team and clarified that Ricciardo was not solely responsible for his underperformance.

The Australian driver stepped in to replace Nyck de Vries mid-season last year with Red Bull's sister Formula 1 team, aiming for a future seat alongside Max Verstappen. However, his 2023 campaign was hampered by a wrist injury, limiting his opportunities to demonstrate his racing abilities and paving the way for reserve driver Liam Lawson to step up and fulfill the role for five Grands Prix. Thus, Ricciardo entered 2024 with a clean slate alongside his teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

While the 35-year-old displayed commendable performance on certain occasions, especially with a P4 finish in the Miami Grand Prix Sprint race, most of the season saw Tsunoda outperform Ricciardo, and his inconsistent results put him out of contention for a Red Bull seat. As the season progressed, and with no sign of improvement, Red Bull announced his exit with the Singapore GP being his last race, making way for Lawson into VCARB, where he was assessed alongside Tsunoda. It was this evaluation that ultimately led the Kiwi driver to secure the Red Bull promotion recently, following Sergio Perez's departure.

Mekies acknowledged that Ricciardo might still have carried the form and pace, but an inconsistent car let him down. Taking the blame for what led to the former Red Bull driver's exit, the VCARB team boss told Motorsport.com:

"The question we have been asked the most was: 'Can Daniel still produce the ultimate speed we have seen?' I think he has on a few occasions, in Miami, in Canada [fifth place in qualifying] and in quite a few other races. So, he did produce that ultimate speed that took him to race wins in the past.

"But for the team, as for the drivers, the biggest difficulty is not to be fast one day. It's to be fast in every race. Did we manage to keep Daniel in that sweet spot often enough? No, that's the reality. I raised my hand and we raised our hands as a team, because we have a big part to play in it. And this led to what happened."

Ricciardo stepped into VCARB with more than a decade of Grand Prix racing experience and helped the team with his effective technical feedback which eventually helped Tsunoda and Lawson. Mekies explained:

"We have explored a large part of the car's envelope with Daniel. It's a never-ending process. You do that every time you have a new update, or every time you have a new characteristic. But certainly, Daniel pushed us to explore that envelope, and it gave the engineering team a very good background of what the car would and could not do."

He added:

"There was a huge benefit for the team and for Yuki in terms of Daniel's technical feedback, direction of development, race-winning approach," Mekies added. "Having somebody that knows how it is in a team that wins races, that fights for championships, is setting the benchmark and that counts a lot in a time where you are trying to build the team and target better results.

"That benefit has been huge, also in terms of car understanding and car development. And I think Yuki has been developing a good relationship with Daniel to the extent that he has been able to absorb quite a lot of that and to keep progressing himself in that area."