Daniel Ricciardo treatment questioned as F1 ‘love affair’ slammed

Daniel Ricciardo’s exit from Red Bull has been named as a reason for the team's recent F1 woes.

Red Bull experienced a dramatic fall from grace this year, as McLaren surged as championship contenders and Max Verstappen went on a winless drought from Imola until Monza.

Of greater concern over the past two seasons at Red Bull is their second driver problem, with the team going through three drivers since the end of the 2024 season in the seat alongside the Dutchman.

Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have all struggled against Verstappen, in performances that have tarnished their respective F1 careers.

A former F1 driver however, has pinpointed Daniel Ricciardo’s exit as the key mistake Red Bull made.

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Ricciardo was axed from F1 at the 2024 Singapore GP, after a string of disappointing performances upon his return to Racing Bulls.

According to Derek Daly, who raced in F1 with several teams including Williams, from 1978 until 1982, Red Bull became too distracted by their ‘love affair’ with Verstappen that they forgot to respect Ricciardo.

“I think it's a bigger picture," Derek Daly said to RN365 .

“When you have a love affair with someone like Max Verstappen, we now know there's a price to pay for that.

"And the price to pay for that appears to be team instability. The biggest mistake in the last 10 years that Red Bull made was to not respect Daniel Ricciardo, because when Daniel Ricciardo was there, he was the only one who truly had the strength to race at the highest levels against Max, be as fast as Max at times.

"But they didn't respect what he brought. They didn't treat him to the love affair they had with Max, and eventually, he tired of that."

Of course, there is the caveat that from 2016 until 2018 – the period Verstappen and Ricciardo were team-mates – the Dutchman was at the start of his career and the Aussie at the pinnacle of his.

If Ricciardo went up against the Verstappen of today, it is likely he would have struggled in a similar fashion to his successors at Red Bull.

Furthermore, Ricciardo also struggled with the ground effect cars ushered in by the 2022 regulation changes, and with a car built around Verstappen, he may have suffered just as much as he did at McLaren after leaving the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

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