Christian Horner reveals that while he wanted to see Daniel Ricciardo see out the season, Helmut Marko wanted the Australian out after Barcelona weekend.

Admitting that it was the lack of consistency that led to Ricciardo's downfall, as the chances of the Australian returning to the big team diminished so too did his hopes of even retaining his seat at RB, with Marko pushing particularly hard to drop him.

"I think it was the lack of consistency," Horner tells the F1 Nation podcast. "He started the season roughly, then Miami was a weekend of two halves. The Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic and it looked like the Daniel of old, defending against Ferraris, out-driving the car... but then Saturday afternoon and the Sunday were disastrous.

"Around Barcelona, Helmut wanted him out of the car," admits the Briton.

"There was already a lot of pressure on him there, but by the time we got to Montreal it was actually dear old Jacques Villeneuve who got him properly wound up by giving him a hard time," the Red Bull boss continues. "It definitely fired him up because the way he drove the car that weekend, he grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and put together a very strong race weekend, so I said give Jacques a call every grand prix for the rest of the year because whatever he said it definitely worked!

"I've done my very best to buy him as much time in the car to allow him to deliver," insists the Briton, "otherwise he would have been out of the car after Barcelona.

"All the drivers are under pressure to deliver but the reason that Daniel was in that car was to get himself back into a position to ultimately be there to pick up the pieces if Checo didn't deliver. The problem was, they both had issues with form at varying times. Checo started the season very well, very strongly, and Daniel was struggling. Then, as Checo lost form, Daniel found a bit of form but it was never compelling enough to say okay we should switch the two drivers."

"I would have loved to see him use it as a springboard to get back to where he was, to have completed the story, but it wasn't to be," Horner admits. "Daniel's honest about that, and he knows in his heart he gave it his best shot. He's had a great career, he's had a great run, but unfortunately the next chapter wasn't to be."

Confirming that the Australian has been offered an ambassadorial role with the team, much like that of David Coulthard, Horner explains: "He's so good in front of the camera. He's a natural entertainer and a showman, he will be for sure in front of the camera at some point and I'm sure there will be a documentary or something, that will be fascinating."

As for Lawson, Perez and 2025...

"From a broader perspective we need answers for the bigger picture in terms of drivers," he admits. "With six races remaining, it's the perfect opportunity to line Liam up alongside Yuki, to see how he performs.

"This goes beyond VCARB, it encompasses Red Bull Racing," he adds. "We have a contract with Sergio for next year, but you've always got to have an eye out in terms of what comes next; is that going to be Liam, or do we need to look outside the pool? Will one of the other juniors step up in the fullness of time, whether that's Isack Hadjar or Arvid Lindblad?"

And then there's George Russell...

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by trackrecords, 03/10/2024 3:08

"Arvid Lindblad - I remember him being all-conquering in UK Cadet karting driving for Oliver Rowland Motorsport. There is an irony if Rowland, who has just wound-up the karting team, were to supply the 6th UK driver on the F1 grid, and proves a fear of mine to be correct.
A British-Swede, Lindblad Cadet karted in Britain, but when he moved up from Cadets, he concentrated on karting in Europe and Internationally. No longer did he kart at UK tracks. Moving to circuit racing, he only raced abroad and never raced at UK circuits, apart from Silverstone, supporting the GP.
The UK is home to 9 F1 teams, but as are motor racing circuits are no longer being used by our-home grown talent are they eventually going to become nothing more than facilitates purely for amateur club-racers, rather than proving grounds for future F1 drivers? Are the days gone when the likes of Perez, Ricciardo, Sainz, and Webber come to the UK to race in Junior formulae?"

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2. Posted by ffracer, 02/10/2024 2:18

"Don't go away mad, Darth Marko, just go away... this incredibly sensitive individual (not) once again proves why he should be entrusted with young drivers. Seriously, he has the table manners of a Moray eel. "

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3. Posted by kenji, 02/10/2024 0:40

"The biggest problem with RB is the fact that CH doesn't have total control. Marko is the fly in the ointment. I'm surprised that Marko has lasted as long as he has and when running an F1 team, which is a formidable task, to have Marko/Verstappen breathing down your neck constantly diverts attention to running the team. That's when errors creep in and we are seeing some of that right now! Marko should be relieved of his position and let the TP get on with the business of racing."

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4. Posted by Spindoctor, 01/10/2024 22:08

"Maybe Marko sees Lawson as a potential replacement for golden boy Max should he defect to AM.
Booting-out Ricciardo dives him an opportunty to evaluate that in 'real time'.
"

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5. Posted by BillH, 01/10/2024 18:28

"Unfortunately for Ricciardo, he did not beat Tsunoda.
No matter how bad the car is, it is bad for for both drivers of that team.
Perhaps Marko could see Perez's issues and was angling to get Lawson in sooner to see if the latter could step up later in 24 or in 25 to the "big" team?
History now of course.
Horner does not mention Tsunoda going to the RB team for some reason, so much for VCARB or whatever it's called being a feeder to RB."

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6. Posted by Burton, 01/10/2024 17:27

"Toro Rosso went massively backwards with car "upgrades" and operationally (pit stops/race strategy) they're easily the worst team on the grid. A serious organisation would focus on that before sacking drivers."

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7. Posted by KKK, 01/10/2024 12:29

"I think its about time Marko himself is dropped. RB is a bucket of shite and yet he blames the drivers....and yet Tsunoda keeps his seat only because of the money side, he is no better than Daniel. Please retire Helmut, your days are long gone."

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8. Posted by Hobgoblin, 01/10/2024 11:20

"That's a very long way of saying "it wasn't me - it was him"."

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Marko wanted to drop Ricciardo after Spanish GP

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