Daniel Ricciardo has spoken candidly about his position within Red Bull and his long-term aims in Formula 1. The 8-time race winner is expected to continue with VCARB in 2025, although he is still under evaluation. By Ricciardo’s own admission, his performances this year have been below par. Despite this, he remains optimistic for the future.
It is no secret that Ricciardo has failed to reach the level he was hoping for at VCARB. Yuki Tsunoda is performing significantly better this year, which is reflected in almost every objective metric.
Still, the Australian remains confident in his abilities. When the year began, he was adamant that something unknown in his VCARB 01 was impacting his performance.
Although this speculative theory has been largely dismissed, Ricciardo believes he can achieve more in F1. In his eyes, finishing P4 in the Miami Sprint represents the most recent evidence of this.
DANIEL RICCIARDO STILL OPTIMISTIC ABOUT RED BULL DREAM
Whilst the door at Red Bull is closed for the foreseeable future, the 34-year-old’s mentality is unchanged:
“I don’t think it changes anything for me. Obviously, my goal, at some point, I’d love to be back there,” he told Sky Sports.
“But I also know 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.
“Look, I’ve been doing this long enough, I know myself 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, I’ll have, maybe, the most control over my future. Up until now, I haven’t probably been awesome enough. But equally, I am happy to be here – just being 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 yeah, we’ll see.”
Liam Lawson is one of many options that Red Bull could promote to VCARB. Of course, the arrival of any academy driver – unless Tsunoda leaves the team – would be at Ricciardo’s expense.
However, there are no indications that Red Bull wants to part ways with the Australian.
From Red Bull team principal Christian Horner to VCARB CEO Peter Bayer, support for Daniel Ricciardo is plentiful.
