03/10/2024
NEWS STORY
Helmut Marko has defended the decision to drop Daniel Ricciardo for Liam Lawson for the remaining six races of the season.
With Christian Horner having been willing to give the Australian the rest of the year, it was clearly the controversial Austrian who wanted Ricciardo out. Indeed, Horner has revealed that Marko wanted to drop the Australian driver as early as Barcelona.
As criticism of the move continues, Marko has defended the decision.
He was given a second chance that no one else would have given him," he told SpeedWeek. "And that was under the premise that a return to Red Bull Racing was possible if he performed well enough.
"The necessary performance only came twice," insisted the Austrian, "once with a fourth place in the Miami Sprint this year and last year in Mexico. Otherwise the speed was not there, and the consistency was not there either.
"The whole performance that would have justified a promotion to Red Bull was missing," he added. "But that was the whole point of the whole thing."
Far from winning promotion back to Red Bull, Ricciardo was unable to keep his seat at RB, out-qualified 12 - 6 by his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, who has also scored (10) more points this season and had more points finishes (8 - 4).
"If we knew why the performance was not as good as it should be, we would have done everything we could to change that," said Marko, though both drivers have clearly struggled with the car this season.
"But the same killer instinct was simply no longer evident. He was famous for his uncompromising overtaking and braking at the last point. But that was no longer the case either."
Though he may not have a drive, the organisers of the forthcoming United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas want Ricciardo to attend the event due to his popularity with fans.
"Daniel, may be able to have just as big of an impact out of the car as he has in it at our at our grand prix," said chairman, Bobby Epstein. "I'm not sure that necessarily people are buying tickets to come see him race if he's not in a competitive car, right? So if you're coming because he's part of the F1 community, I think he can still be part of the F1 community in a pretty meaningful way.
"He's really, really loved in Texas, and I think he likes it here," Epstein continued. "So I would hope that he makes himself available more to the fans than he would otherwise be if he had an obligation in the car. I hope he's still coming here, because we got a lot of people that would love to shake his hand or get his autograph or take a picture. Just see him around town. We'll keep him busy."
For those of a certain vintage, think Pete Aron turning up for the French GP (?) as a TV commentator after being sacked by Jordan-BRM following his involvement in teammate Scott Stoddard's horrific crash in Monaco. The American racer was subsequently given a drive by Japan's Namura team and went on to win the title following a down-to-the-wire battle with the Briton.