Daniel Ricciardo F1 News: Red Bull boss Christian Horner makes 'best driver' claim as team assess 2025 lineup

Daniel Ricciardo

Horner makes Ricciardo 'best driver' claim as Red Bull assess 2025 lineup

Daniel Ricciardo was axed from VCARB after the Singapore GP

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Sunday 17 November 2024 21:57

Christian Horner has made a Daniel Ricciardo ‘best driver’ claim as the Red Bull boss continues to assess his 2025 lineup.

Red Bull have been delivered a dilemma during the closing stages of the 2024 season, with Sergio Perez having failed to score any points in the last two races.

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The Mexican’s poor performances have allowed Ferrari to usurp Red Bull in the constructors’ battle, with reports suggesting the team could replace the star for 2025.

Horner was spotted leaving Williams' motorhome at the Brazilian GP, which only increased speculation that Red Bull are interested in signing Franco Colapinto for next year.

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Red Bull are no strangers to an early F1 axe, with the team sacking Ricciardo from VCARB following the Singapore GP and replacing him with Liam Lawson - who is also a favourite to replace Perez.

Despite Ricciardo’s exit from F1, Horner remains complimentary of his former driver, and has recently hailed him as the ‘best driver’ during one of his season's with the team.

Speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast, Horner was asked to name Ricciardo’s best performances in F1, citing the 2018 Monaco GP amongst his most impressive victories.

"He drove some brilliant races for us. I’m not going to name one, I’m going to name a couple," Horner said.

"I think that some of the races, if you look at Hungary 2014… Our biggest concern when he came to drive for us was that we knew he was quick, but [we’d] never seen him overtake anybody, so we didn’t know how good a racer he was.

Christian Horner claims Daniel Ricciardo was the best driver during the 2014 F1 season

"As soon as he got in our car, he just never stopped overtaking people! He was so late on the brakes. If you look at that race from 2014 in Hungary, if you look at his first victory in Montreal, the race he won in China in 2018 I think it was.

"He was outstanding in that and when his confidence was sky-high… For me, in 2014 he was the best driver on the grid - that was his high point."

Red Bull Christian Horner Daniel Ricciardo Sergio Perez