“It’s Up to Me”: Daniel Ricciardo Prepares to Take Matters Into His Hands in Duel With Liam Lawson
Credits: IMAGO / PanoramiC

Daniel Ricciardo has insisted he plans to remain part of the Red Bull family for the upcoming seasons despite an up-and-down year so far in 2024. He mentioned that it’s on him to prove himself to the team despite Red Bull shifting its focus on their young reserve driver, Liam Lawson.

“I have every opportunity in front of me, and that’s the beauty. It’s up to me, and I know there is always pressure and there is the Red Bull system, but I know if I do the job then I will have a seat. I’ll have somewhere to race,” Ricciardo noted speaking on Media Day ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix.

Lawson himself was eying a full-time seat for the 2024 season but Red Bull decided to stick with the pair of Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda at VCARB. However, recent remarks from Lawson suggest that he might look for opportunities elsewhere if he can’t get a drive with any of the two Red Bull teams.

This has led Helmut Marko to say that they will give him a seat in 2025, albeit it’s not clear in which of the two outfits.

Interestingly, Ricciardo himself believes that Lawson is an exceptional talent and deserves a place on the F1 grid as soon as possible. However, if the Kiwi driver is to join the grid in 2025 in a Red Bull outfit, it might very well come at the expense of Ricciardo’s future.

Lawson’s 2023 substitute performances could hurt Ricciardo

After his horrible McLaren exit at the end of 2022, the Honey Badger got a fortunate chance to return to the Red Bull family and got a seat at AlphaTauri (now VCARB) mid-season in 2023.

However, a broken arm during the Dutch GP weekend forced the Aussie to temporarily step away from the team giving Lawson a stand-in opportunity for five races. And the New Zealander grabbed it with both hands leaving everyone in the paddock mighty impressed.

Speaking about his injury in Zandvoort last year, Ricciardo mentioned that he is still not 100% recovered. “From a functionability, the hand is still probably not where I thought it would be, but that doesn’t affect me in the car. It’s probably some bits of training I need to change a bit,” the 35-year-old said.

The Honey Badger just wants to do as good a job as possible so that he can get back to his former team as Verstappen’s teammate.