Racing Bulls has admitted that the team didn’t create the conditions which allowed Daniel Ricciardo to remain in the “sweet spot” during his second stint in Formula 1.
Having endured a disrupted comeback to F1 in 2023, Ricciardo was aiming to hit the ground running in the past season to secure a return to the senior Red Bull team.
But Ricciardo struggled to deliver consistent results with the sister squad, known then as RB, and was dropped with six events to go as his Red Bull hopes diminished.
The Australian had shown promise in glimpses as he managed fourth in the Miami Sprint race and then qualified inside the top five places at the Canadian Grand Prix.
However, those showings never translated into a sustained run to encourage Red Bull to axe the struggling Sergio Perez and give him the seat he had vacated in 2018.
Perez would be ousted once the campaign ended, but it was Liam Lawson, Ricciardo’s replacement at RB, who has been granted a chance alongside Max Verstappen.
Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies has conceded that the team took on a collective responsibility for Ricciardo’s spell not producing more tangible results on the track.
“The question we have been asked the most was: ‘Can Daniel still produce the ultimate speed we have seen?'” Mekies revealed to Autosport.
“I think he has on a few occasions, in Miami, in Canada and in quite a few other races.
“So, he did produce that ultimate speed that took him to race wins in the past.
“But for the team, as for the drivers, the biggest difficulty is not to be fast one day. It’s to be fast in every race.
“Did we manage to keep Daniel in that sweet spot often enough? No, that’s the reality.
“I raised my hand and we raised our hands as a team, because we have a big part to play in it. And this led to what happened.”
Racing Bulls has no regrets over Ricciardo spell
Red Bull’s gamble to bring Ricciardo back has been viewed as a move which denied Lawson added exposure to the top flight prior to his promotion to the main team.
However, Mekies has claimed that Racing Bulls harbours no regrets as the eight-time F1 race winner’s vast experience helped to accelerate his squad’s development.
“There was a huge benefit for the team and for Yuki [Tsunoda] in terms of Daniel’s technical feedback, direction of development, race-winning approach,” Mekies added.
“Having somebody that knows how it is in a team that wins races, that fights for championships, is setting the benchmark and that counts a lot in a time where you are trying to build the team and target better results.
“That benefit has been huge, also in terms of car understanding and car development.
And I think Yuki has been developing a good relationship with Daniel to the extent that he has been able to absorb quite a lot of that and to keep progressing himself in that area.”
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