Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko claims no other team would’ve handed Daniel Ricciardo another chance in Formula 1 amid criticism over how his RB exit was handled.
Ricciardo’s career in F1 looks to have reached a conclusion amid the announcement last week that Liam Lawson will replace him at RB over the remaining six rounds.
The Australian began the Singapore weekend admitting that there was a chance it could be his last event and his demeanour post-race implied that was the outcome.
However, RB did not publicise the news until Thursday, despite Ricciardo having been told and Lawson revealing that he knew about the switch two weeks in advance.
Marko, who is reported to have wanted the swap to occur in June, has defended Red Bull with the argument that it was the one team to grant Ricciardo an F1 reprieve.
“He was given a second chance that no one else would have given him,” Marko told SpeedWeek.
“And that was under the premise that a return to Red Bull Racing was possible if he performed well enough.”
Ricciardo’s speed ‘was not there’
Ricciardo’s return to the Red Bull stable last season revolved around his desire to prove that he could rediscover the form that saw him win seven races with the team.
However, the ex-McLaren racer struggled to deliver consistent results and was 10 points behind team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who out-qualified him 12 times in 18 races.
“But the necessary performance only came twice, once with a fourth place in the Miami Sprint [race] this year and last year in Mexico,” Marko added.
“Otherwise that speed was not there, and the consistency was not there either.
“The whole performance that would have justified a promotion to Red Bull Racing was missing. But that was the whole point of the whole thing.”
Ricciardo lacked ‘killer instinct’ upon F1 return
Marko has reiterated his view that Ricciardo was no longer the same driver the second time around, citing that it would have helped him had it understood his issues.
“If we knew why the performance was not as good as it should be, we would have done everything we could to change that,” he explained.
“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.”
READ MORE: Helmut Marko claims Daniel Ricciardo lost ‘killer instinct’ upon Red Bull F1 exit
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