Daniel Ricciardo has declared some of the criticism he’s copped in an up-and-down 2024 F1 season has been blown out of proportion.
The comments come as Red Bull supremo Helmut Marko revealed the two drivers he considers the most in-contention to replace the horribly out of form Sergio Perez, of which neither were the 34-year-old Aussie.
Rumours surrounding Perez’s future with the team – despite only just signing a fresh two-year deal last month – have reached fever-pitch off the back of a string of poor performances.
The Mexican has scored just 15 points from the last six races, and has failed to score in three of them. His lacklustre performances has left Red Bull vulnerable in the constructors championship in its quest for a third straight driver-teams double.
Amid reports he has a performance clause that could trigger his axing in as little as two races time, Marko said Red Bull would do an “evaluation” on Perez in the mid-season break between the Belgian and Dutch grands prix.
“All Formula 1 contracts have exit clauses, most of them related to performance – or let’s say for the top drivers,” he said.
“As I mentioned before, we will have an evaluation during the summer break – and then we will make a decision.”
Liam Lawson took part in an aero test for Red Bull at Silverstone overnight. Although running was limited to 200km, or 33 laps, it’s plenty of running for the team to perform a solid evaluation of the 22-year-old Kiwi.