Anthony Davidson claims why Daniel Ricciardo is set to lose RB seat after ‘speaking to his engineer’

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Daniel Ricciardo will go into the Singapore Grand Prix knowing it may be his last race for Visa Cash App RB, and Sky Sports pundit Anthony Davidson thinks he knows why.

Expectation is rife that Red Bull will move Ricciardo aside after Sunday’s race at Marina Bay and put Liam Lawson in the RB for the rest of the year. It has not been the season Ricciardo would have sought before a wheel turned in anger and his future in F1 is now in real doubt.

Ricciardo returned to Faenza last year while Visa Cash App RB were still called AlphaTauri to replace Nyck de Vries fully with the aims of working his way back to Red Bull. But a route to Milton Keynes is not on offer after the 35-year-old failed to dominate Yuki Tsunoda with RB.

Anthony Davidson reveals Daniel Ricciardo’s engineer admits he does not like F1’s car

Ricciardo has only scored 12 points to Tsunoda’s 22 so far this season after having just three top-10 finishes to the 24-year-old’s seven ahead of the Singapore GP. So, Red Bull are set to drop Ricciardo to see how Lawson fares beside Tsunoda before setting the 2025 RB line-up.

An upturn in form by the Perth native from the Canadian Grand Prix until the Belgian Grand Prix will keep Ricciardo in the frame for the 2025 seat. But Davidson believes the writing has been on the wall for some time as the eight-time race winner does not like F1’s current cars.

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Davidson believes after speaking with Ricciardo’s engineer that the Visa Cash App RB driver still does not feel comfortable driving the car the way it has to be wrestled to unlock its full potential. The ex-BAR star also wonders if Ricciardo’s reflexes have now started to diminish.

“Where he is right now, he’s a very different driver to where he was in his Red Bull days,” Davidson told Sky Sports F1 (20/9, 16:12). “The cars have changed, for a start, a lot. This generation of car really doesn’t suit some drivers’ style.

“I’ve spoken to his engineer and he’s said, yeah, these cars demand quite a lot of steering angle. He’s a very precise driver and he just doesn’t feel happy to drive the car that way.

“That’s one thing, motivation as an athlete ages is another. I’ve been there myself, I know. Everybody ages at a different rate and your reflexes, I’m sure, start to diminish.”

Daniel Ricciardo could lack motivation without a route back to Red Bull

Ricciardo saw Red Bull shut down his hopes of a return to Milton Keynes when Sergio Perez signed his contract extension in June, and again in the summer break when the 34-year-old survived serious doubts over his future. But Ricciardo’s form was not convincing at the time.

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Red Bull confirmed Perez’s contract extension after the Monaco Grand Prix, at a point when Ricciardo had not achieved a single top-10 finish and his only points from eight rounds came in the F1 Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix. Monaco marked Tsunoda’s fifth finish in the top 10.

But a P8 finish in the Canadian GP, his P9 in the Austrian Grand Prix and a P10 in the Belgian Grand Prix put Ricciardo back in contention to replace Perez if Red Bull sought a mid-season switch. Yet it was not enough, and his finishes have been P12, P13 and P13 since the break.

Now, Lawson is likely to take Ricciardo’s drive for the rest of 2024 and try to prove he merits it full-time in 2025. But without a route back to Red Bull, Ricciardo could lack the motivation to perform well next year. He left Milton Keynes after the 2018 season with seven race wins.