Red Bull F1 News: Daniel Ricciardo return hampered by KEY attribute

Daniel Ricciardo, VCARB, Visa, RB, China, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

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Ricciardo Red Bull return hampered by KEY attribute

The Australian driver's experience has been helping others improve

Rhys Thomas

Tuesday 4 June 2024 17:55 Updated: 18:29

Daniel Ricciardo's own Formula 1 knowledge and experience could be giving his competition for the 2025 Red Bull seat the upper hand.

The Australian driver drove for the Milton Keynes team between 2014-2018, before making switches to Renault (now Alpine) and then McLaren.

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Despite a shock win at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, the 34-year-old struggled to carry his previously impressive career form into the Papaya team, and was dropped for the 2023 season.

He then rejoined the Red Bull family as a reserve driver, and rejoined the grid midway through last season, signing for Red Bull's sister team to race alongside Yuki Tsunoda.

As part of the Red Bull F1 group, both are in contention for a 2025 drive with the world champions, should they elect not to renew Sergio Perez's contract.

Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda are team-mates at Racing Bulls

Daniel Ricciardo faces an uphill battle to make it back to the front of F1

Could Tsunoda impact Ricciardo's Red Bull ambitions?

The Visa Cash App RB pair have been team-mates for little under a year now, and Tsunoda - in just his fourth season in F1 compared to Ricciardo's 14 - has already learned plenty from the experienced Australian.

“Daniel, what I learned from him, especially [was] self-control," the Japanese driver told the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

“And that's why I recently was able to gain those places," he continued. "My weakness, which is my self-control part that I was struggling [with] recently, I was able to improve well.

“He's just very consistent emotionally, and I respect him a lot with that and learned a lot of things."

Whilst this testimony reflects well on Ricciardo's character and driving, the numbers are not such happy reading for fans of the eight-time race winner.

Tsunoda currently sits 10th in the 2024 drivers' championship with 19 points, while Ricciardo has just five.

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Excluding sprints, the Australian is pointless in 2024, whereas Tsunoda has scored points in his last five classified finishes and has a 7-1 qualifying advantage.

Part of the reason for Tsunoda's stellar form - which has forced him into the conversation at Red Bull - could be down to what he has learned from Ricciardo.

Tsunoda said: “It's super different in the car, especially, he's [Ricciardo] just more focused to what he wants, to tell the feedback about the car, the tyres.

“So actually, there was opportunity to hear a full race of what Daniel said, and just there was so much difference [to] what I was saying or what I was telling to the engineers.

“So those places, for sure, I learned a lot of things from him, and that's one of the reasons I was able to [have] success to improve my weakness,” he added.

Red Bull McLaren Daniel Ricciardo Alpine Yuki Tsunoda Italian Grand Prix