Daniel Ricciardo has been replaced at RB by Liam Lawson
for the remainder of the 2024 season.
The 35-year-old Australian has been dropped with six races
to go because Red Bull management have been unconvinced by his performances.
Giving Lawson the seat allows him to be assessed over the
remaining races before Red Bull finalise their plans for 2025.
RB team principal Laurent Mekies said: "Daniel has
brought a lot of experience and talent to the team with a fantastic attitude,
which has helped everyone to develop and foster a tight team spirit.
"He has been a true gentleman both on and off the track
and never without that smile. He will be missed, but will always hold a special
place within the Red Bull family."
Ricciardo said in a statement on Instagram: "I’ve loved
this sport my whole life. It’s wild and wonderful and been a journey.
"To the teams and individuals that have played their
part, thank you. To the fans who love the sport sometimes more than me, haha,
thank you. It’ll always have its highs and lows but it’s been fun and truth be
told I wouldn’t change it."
"Until the next adventure."
Lawson, 22, came in for five races last season after
Australian Ricciardo broke his wrist in a crash at the Dutch Grand Prix.
The New Zealander scored two points with a ninth-place
finish at the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.
Mekies said: "Liam drove for us last season, and coped
well under difficult circumstances, so it’ll be a natural transition."
RB's statement made no mention of RB’s 2025 line-up. Japan's
Yuki Tsunoda already has a confirmed seat but the team have not announced who
will be his team-mate.
Why has Ricciardo been dropped?
Ricciardo’s jovial character and sense of humour has made
him one of F1's most popular characters throughout his 13-year career.
And for seven seasons, from 2014 to 2020 inclusive, he was
considered one of the sport's leading drivers.
He was promoted to the Red Bull team from the junior outfit
in 2014 and outperformed four-time champion Sebastian Vettel in his first
season, scoring three wins to the German's none.
They were the first of seven impressive wins in his five
years at Red Bull, at a time when Mercedes were dominating the sport, many of
them thanks to swashbuckling late-dive overtaking manoeuvres. These became a
Ricciardo trademark.
But Ricciardo's career began to go into decline after he
decided to leave Red Bull at the end of 2018.
Ricciardo felt that the team was coalescing around his
team-mate Max Verstappen, who was promoted from the junior team in 2016 and won
on his debut in Spain.
Verstappen gradually imposed his superiority over Ricciardo,
who felt there was no way for him to reverse the trend as management
increasingly leant towards the Dutchman.
Ricciardo decided to take a lucrative offer from Renault,
who paid him $55m over two seasons in 2019-20, hoping he could build a future
with the French team.
His performances remained strong, and he outperformed his
first team-mate Nico Hulkenberg over 2019 and then Esteban Ocon in 2020, before
moving to McLaren for 2021.
That switch was the beginning of the end for Ricciardo.
Although he took his final victory in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, he was
outperformed by team-mate Lando Norris through the season.
And when the trend continued and was enhanced in 2022,
McLaren decided to drop Ricciardo in favour of fellow Australian Oscar Piastri
at the end of the season, a year before his contract was due to expire.
Ricciardo was given a lifeline by Red Bull, who made him
their reserve driver for 2023, and then promoted him to a race seat at their
second team midway through last season as a replacement for Dutchman Nyck de
Vries.
At the time, Red Bull’s thinking was that Ricciardo could be
a potential replacement for Sergio Perez as Verstappen’s team-mate in the main
team.
But on balance Ricciardo has been outperformed by Tsunoda,
and his performances have ruled him out of contention for a return to Red Bull.
His final hurrah was to help out Verstappen by securing the
fastest lap of the race at last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, denying the
Dutchman's title rival Lando Norris an extra point.
What’s the future for Lawson?
Lawson's promotion means he has a chance to stake a claim to
a future at Red Bull - either at RB or in the senior team.
Perez was under pressure for his own drive both during last
year and after a lacklustre first half to this season.
Red Bull went into this year's summer break considering
dropping the Mexican for the second part of the season, but ultimately kept
Perez in place because of the risks involved in any other course of action.
Perez's continued struggles mean his position is less than
secure, despite him signing a new contract in May that lasts until the end of
2026.
It can be assumed Lawson will be kept on as a race driver
for 2025, and he now has an opportunity to put himself in the frame for
promotion to the senior team in the future.
F1 is on a four-week hiatus before the final six races of
the 2024 season, with the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, next up from 18-20
October.
