Daniel Ricciardo says criticism from Helmut Marko is part of the appeal of racing in the Red Bull family after the Austrian powerbroker piled pressure onto the 34-year-old ahead of his home race.
Ricciardo is embarking on the first full-time campaign of his post-McLaren comeback but is yet to fire in 2024, having twice been outqualified by teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
The Australian has been shaded by the Japanese star in both races, finishing marginally ahead in Bahrain thanks to a faster alternative strategy and team orders but ending Saudi Arabia behind after error-prone race by both team and driver.
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The intrateam battle between the pair is being billed as a showdown for Sergio Pérez’s Red Bull Racing seat should the Mexican fail to secure a contract extension with the constructors champion.
The potential for Max Verstappen to exit his contract early over the team’s internal powerplays has further raised the stakes.
“Both Yuki and Daniel have a lot at stake this season,” Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport adviser, wrote in the Red Bull-owned Speedweek. “Yuki’s qualifying performance was very good [in Jeddah] and Ricciardo will have to come up with something soon.”
Though in this case coming unusually early in the season, after just two races, Marko makes regular interventions in the discourse surrounding Red Bull’s Formula 1 drivers, particularly in his role as overseer of the team’s development pipeline.
Some on the long list of drivers to have been turfed by the Austrian over the years have criticised Marko’s managing of the program as harsh, with his commentary often perceived as being a pressure test for drivers at crucial moments in their careers.
But speaking to Fox Sports, Ricciardo said he relished the bluntness of Marko’s appraisals.
“I enjoy being back in the Red Bull family because I enjoy that little bit of extra whatever it is from Helmut, where it’s like, ‘I know he’s always going to be on my arse’,” he says. “That’s how he is. That’s fine. I’m totally okay with that.”
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The Australian cautioned against attempting to interpret Marko’s comments externally.
“I think from the outside some people are like, ‘Oh, is it panic mode? Or is it crisis mode? Or what’s going on?’.
“Nothing’s going on. In Bahrain I didn’t do a good enough job in qualifying, so yeah, that’s on me. In Saudi we had some issues, as simple as that. That was that.
“I’m not in a state of, ‘Shit, there’s a lot of pressure on or whatever’. The pressure I put is on myself.”
The weakest of the limited two-race sample of Ricciardo’s season was Saudi Arabia, where the Aussie was knocked out in Q2 with a mammoth 0.461-second deficit to Q3-bound Tsunoda.
The race was equally disappointing, with a super slow pit stop undoing his evening before a clumsy spin put a painful punctuation on the weekend.
But Ricciardo has since confirmed the team found “inconsistencies” between his and Tsunoda’s car in Jeddah, having hinted at some sort of fundamental issue immediately after the race.
It helps to put that weekend into context, with Ricciardo otherwise expressing confidence that the VCARB 01 is a machine he can push in after the difficult years trying to tame McLaren’s cars.
“Obviously jumping to results on paper it would probably look like I’m struggling a bit with a car or whatever, but actually it feels very similar to last year,” he says.
“I think we’re certainly trying to be a bit more ambitious with some set-up things and push the car a bit more, because we know it’s so tight where we are. We’re certainly searching for that extra tenth.
“I think me personally as well, because I felt quite comfortable with the car last year, I’m willing to take a bit more risks with set-up and things. Maybe they haven’t always worked, but I think generally the car is fine, it’s balanced. We can work with it.”
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The margins in the backmarker group are fine, with RB holding a qualifying advantage but the order of the bottom five teams mixed on race pace.
Speaking earlier at Albert Park, Ricciardo said the tight field helped him stay optimistic that any weekend could lead to a major breakthrough and a rare opportunity to score, including at his home race.
“These things can also be very track dependent,” he said. “I mention it a lot, but in Mexico last year we were last in the constructors at the time I qualified fourth. Coming into that weekend no-one would have ever expected that.
“There’s always this bit of hope that you also hold on to coming into every weekend. At least I do.
“So I’m always excited. I know that it’s probably not going to win this weekend, but maybe we can be in the top 10 and get a little bag of points.”
It would be a timely result for Ricciardo’s career recovery. While the experienced Australian has deftly rebuffed criticism from Marko and more broadly, he knows he has a limited time to prove he deserves a second chance in a frontrunning car.
“I know in this sport you’re only as good as your last race, and you obviously want to start the season well,” he tells Fox Sports.
“I come here this weekend with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder because I do want to do well and I do want to get this season started, and to do it at home feels like the perfect place.”
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