Daniel Ricciardo

[ajprice]

Forester1965 said:

I suspect the Red Bull shareholders are concerned there's a risk Verstappen may leave (or negotiate a better deal using the threat of leaving). The lack of succession plan means they have no ready made replacement and less leverage of their own in any negotiation. You're hardly going to threaten Verstappen that Ricciardo is going to take his seat if he goes. Big so what.

They need to return to putting fresh new things into the B team and see which ones float.

They're wasting any succession plan they have by keeping DR and Perez on. They have Tsunoda and Lawson, they lost Albon. Maybe Hadjar could come up from F2 if they had the space, but it will probably be DR out and Lawson in.

[Forester1965]

Muzzer79 said:

Ricciardo was put into RB to cover a Perez exit, not a Verstappen one.

Exactly my point. That situation has passed and now Ricciardo is seat blocking. They now need to put high-potential drivers into the junior team to find the replacement for Verstappen (if they need one) and Perez (they will).

[thegreenhell]

If Verstappen leaves they won't be replacing him with a junior. They don't have anyone with that potential. They'll be left trying to sign someone like Sainz or similar to keep them out of the midfield.

[Forester1965]

Precisely. That's why they need to (and will) remove Ricciardo. Tsunoda isn't safe, either.

[nnnitram]

One of the weirdest things to see is the narrative of Ricciardo boosters change to "wowww look how close he is to Yuki! There's milliseconds in it!" as if Yuki is some generational talent and Ricciardo is legendary for almost keeping up with him.

Yuki is an inconsistent midfield driver who is still improving. But when Ricciardo was placed in VCARB (or whatever it was called last year) the broad consensus was that if he doesn't wipe the floor with Yuki we will know he's not the old Ricciardo.

It's time for him to retire with what miniscule dignity he has left.