Daniel Ricciardo confronted by new revelation that 2025 F1 axe might be close

Daniel Ricciardo has responded honestly to fresh suggestions that his place on next year’s F1 grid is under threat.

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko has told Kleine Zeitung about Liam Lawson: "Next year he will be sitting completely in one of our cars.”

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are contracted in 2025 for Red Bull, while sister team RB have tied down Yuki Tsunoda, leaving Ricciardo as the only driver without a confirmed spot and therefore at major risk from Lawson.

“It’s okay,” Ricciardo said at Zandvoort ahead of this weekend’s F1 Dutch Grand Prix, where Crash.net are in the paddock.

“I still know that performance is my best friend. If I do what I’m capable of, it puts me in a good position to stay somewhere in the family next year.

“Liam, I saw him drive the car last year. He did a great job and he’s worthy of a seat on the grid. In a way, I’m happy for him. He’s a deserving driver.

“What that means for me is unknown. If I perform, I’m sure they will find a spot for me somewhere.”

Ricciardo on snub from Red Bull

Red Bull clarified during the F1 summer break that at-risk and out-of-form driver Perez would remain for the second half of the season.

That decision ended Ricciardo’s faint hope of replacing him in the car that has been his dream destination since returning to the grid a year ago at AlphaTauri.

Ricciardo said about awaiting a call to be promoted into the Red Bull: “I didn’t rule it out. I thought maybe something could happen.

“But I didn’t expect it, or get my hopes up. I thought: ‘Let’s do what I’m doing, and if I get a call…’

“Obviously I didn’t get a call. But that’s what I had mentally prepared myself for.

“I didn’t receive the call to say ‘you are changing’. But we still spoke.

“The week after Spa we were able to work. And I had a filming day so I spoke to the team.”

Ricciardo hasn’t enjoyed the results this year to clearly merit a move into Perez’s Red Bull, by his own admission.

“It’s clear that, since Montreal, I’ve done more of what was expected of me results-wise,” he said.

“Keep doing that, keep performing at the level I can, things will work out.”

Will Ricciardo seek new F1 team?

Ricciardo insisted that, with his RB 2025 seat now at risk, he is not considering other teams to remain in F1.

“I am most happy being back here,” he said.

“Speaking of performance, it’s nice not looking elsewhere or having little distractions.

“It’s an all-in approach. I think that was get the most out of me. If that’s still not enough? C’est la vie! It intensifies it but also simplifies it.

“It’s not coming from a stubborn place but I don’t want to be anywhere else.”

The ex-McLaren driver added: “I’ve done a bit of jumping around in the past few years which can be tiring.

“I’ve worked hard to get back here. I don’t want to dismiss that.

“There is no next thing for me - this is it! I am appreciative of what they’ve given me.”

However, Ricciardo is currently in the best form of his year. He scored points for just the third time in 2024 last time out, at the Belgian Grand Prix.

He admits that result is not enough for him to make demands to the Red Bull hierarchy.

“It’s definitely helped,” Ricciardo said. “I can’t be like ‘this is enough guys…’

“I appreciate it wasn’t over the course of the first half of the season. My performances got better in the last part. I can’t say that it’s definitely enough.

“If I continue to do this over the next few, I can be like ‘this is the real me’.

“It’s subjective to say if it’s enough. I’m not going to make a song and dance.”