Christian Horner reveals that whereas he wished to see Daniel Ricciardo see out the season, Helmut Marko wished the Australian out after Barcelona weekend.
Admitting that it was the dearth of consistency that led to Ricciardo’s downfall, because the probabilities of the Australian returning to the massive staff diminished so too did his hopes of even retaining his seat at RB, with Marko pushing significantly onerous to drop him.
“I believe it was the dearth of consistency,” Horner tells the F1 Nation podcast. “He began the season roughly, then Miami was a weekend of two halves. The Friday and Saturday morning was implausible and it appeared just like the Daniel of previous, defending in opposition to Ferraris, out-driving the automotive… however then Saturday afternoon and the Sunday have been disastrous.
“Round Barcelona, Helmut wished him out of the automotive,” admits the Briton.
“There was already a whole lot of strain on him there, however by the point we obtained to Montreal it was truly expensive previous Jacques Villeneuve who obtained him correctly wound up by giving him a tough time,” the Pink Bull boss continues. “It positively fired him up as a result of the way in which he drove the automotive that weekend, he grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and put collectively a really sturdy race weekend, so I mentioned give Jacques a name each grand prix for the remainder of the yr as a result of no matter he mentioned it positively labored!
“I’ve performed my highest to purchase him as a lot time within the automotive to permit him to ship,” insists the Briton, “in any other case he would have been out of the automotive after Barcelona.
“All of the drivers are underneath strain to ship however the motive that Daniel was in that automotive was to get himself again right into a place to finally be there to select up the items if Checo did not ship. The issue was, they each had points with kind at various instances. Checo began the season very properly, very strongly, and Daniel was struggling. Then, as Checo misplaced kind, Daniel discovered a little bit of kind but it surely was by no means compelling sufficient to say okay we should always change the 2 drivers.”
“I’d have beloved to see him use it as a springboard to get again to the place he was, to have accomplished the story, but it surely wasn’t to be,” Horner admits. “Daniel’s trustworthy about that, and he is aware of in his coronary heart he gave it his greatest shot. He is had a terrific profession, he is had a terrific run, however sadly the subsequent chapter wasn’t to be.”
Confirming that the Australian has been provided an ambassadorial function with the staff, very like that of David Coulthard, Horner explains: “He is so good in entrance of the digital camera. He is a pure entertainer and a showman, he might be for positive in entrance of the digital camera sooner or later and I am positive there might be a documentary or one thing, that might be fascinating.”
As for Lawson, Perez and 2025…
“From a broader perspective we’d like solutions for the larger image by way of drivers,” he admits. “With six races remaining, it is the right alternative to line Liam up alongside Yuki, to see how he performs.
“This goes past VCARB, it encompasses Pink Bull Racing,” he provides. “We’ve got a contract with Sergio for subsequent yr, however you have all the time obtained to have an eye fixed out by way of what comes subsequent; is that going to be Liam, or do we have to look outdoors the pool? Will one of many different juniors step up within the fullness of time, whether or not that is Isack Hadjar or Arvid Lindblad?”
After which there’s George Russell…
