Blow for Daniel Ricciardo as Helmut Marko disagrees with ‘junior team’ stance

Helmut Marko has disagreed with Daniel Ricciardo’s description of the RB F1 team.

The rebranded team, who were previously Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri, have run with a new name this season.

But Ricciardo’s hope that RB have evolved being merely a feeder project for Red Bull has been disputed.

“If it felt like a junior team still, I wouldn't feel comfortable here. I'm 35 now,” Ricciardo said.

But Red Bull’s Marko has told ESPN about their decision to stick by Sergio Perez: "It was a clear statement from the shareholders that Racing Bulls is a junior team and this route will be how the future will look."

Ricciardo spent the early part of this season hoping to be promoted into the Red Bull next to Max Verstappen, at Perez’s expense.

But his own form deserted him while Perez signed a new contract.

Although Perez’s form has nosedived, Red Bull have confirmed that they will not make a midseason driver change, which also means Ricciardo will remain driving the RB when F1 resumes at Zandvoort.

"Daniel was put in the car and if he would have been significantly faster than Yuki Tsunoda there was an idea to bring him back to Red Bull Racing," Marko told ESPN.

"But he also had this up and down. So, so far, he didn't fulfil the criteria to be a Red Bull Racing driver."

Ricciardo even went into the final round before the summer break, in Belgium, at peace with the idea that it could be his final F1 grand prix.

His own underwhelming results had piled on the pressure that RB could opt to replace him with Liam Lawson.

This fear has been allayed, for now at least.

But Ricciardo does seem set to fail in his mission to return to the Red Bull, a goal he laid out clearly when he returned to F1 a year ago.

Ricciardo had been axed by McLaren and, after missing the first part of 2023, was brought in midway through the season at AlphaTauri where he was able to deliver reminders of his abilities.