F1 team principal drops bombshell admission following Daniel Ricciardo’s ill-fated VCARB stint

Visa Cash App Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies says his team has taken joint responsibility for failing to push Daniel Ricciardo to success, claiming they ‘didn’t keep him in the sweet spot enough’.

Ricciardo’s axing from Red Bull’s sister side came earlier this season following a poor run of form leading up to the Singapore Grand Prix.

It comes after Helmut Marko admitted in a column with SpeedWeek that Red Bull Racing had given him a ‘second chance no one else would have given the Aussie driver’ adding that the Australian had ‘lost his killer instinct’.

Christian Horner later shone some light on the situation on Ricciardo’s departure, telling The Times: ‘I think it was due to a lack of consistency.’ He’d go on to reveal that Marko ‘wanted Ricciardo out of the car’ in June at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The 35-year-old had found it difficult to deliver consistent performances in 2024, with an eighth-place finish in Canada, being his highest placing of the season. He’d end his time with VCARB placing 18th in Singapore after a disappointing season, with Liam Lawson – who has now joined up with Red Bull – taking his place.

Despite that, Mekies broke his silence to claim that it wasn’t solely Ricciardo’s fault, accepting responsibility on behalf of the team.

‘The question we have been asked the most was: ‘Can Daniel still produce the ultimate speed we have seen?’ I think he has on a few occasions, in Miami, in Canada (fifth place in qualifying) and in quite a few other races,’ Mekies told Autosport.

‘So, he did produce that ultimate speed that took him to race wins in the past.

‘But for the team, as for 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.’

Despite that, while Ricciardo’s final season with the Formula One outfit didn’t turn out how he had hoped, it seems his experience and knowledge of the sport helped the team push forward in the development of their car.

‘But certainly, Daniel pushed us to explore that envelope, and it gave the engineering team a very good background of what the car would and could not do,’ he added.

‘There was a huge benefit for the team and for Yuki in terms of Daniel’s technical feedback, direction of development, race-winning approach.’

Leading on Ricciardo’s experience, with the racing driver having enjoyed a 13-year spell in the premier circuit. During that time, he would win eight races and gain 32 podium finishes, having entered 253 races, having raced with Torro Rosso, Red Bull, Renault, McLaren and VCARB.

He also added that Yuki Tsunoda had been able to build a great relationship with Ricciardo, adding that the Aussie had been a mentor for the young driver.

‘We spoke after the race in Singapore, we said thank you and that appreciate each other and I was a bit emotional, to be honest,’ Tsunoda said, speaking on Ricciardo’s departure from the team.

‘He’s been a very good teammate and I think the driver I learn most out of any drivers.

‘I saw a couple of his social media posts and he seems like he’s enjoying the time off a little bit.’