Damon Hill criticises Red Bull’s handling of Daniel Ricciardo’s exit

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Damon Hill has criticised Red Bull’s handling of Daniel Ricciardo’s exit after he was dumped by the team in favour of Liam Lawson following the Singapore Grand Prix.

The future of Daniel Ricciardo came under renewed scrutiny heading into Singapore when rumours emerged that Red Bull was considering replacing him with Liam Lawson.

Lawson reportedly had a clause in his contract that stipulated an option must be taken up before the end of September, otherwise Red Bull risked him going to another team.

Given Ricciardo has been struggling to beat teammate Yuki Tsunoda for most of the season, the team decided the Azerbaijan GP to replace him with Lawson for the remaining six races given they are in a tight battle in the Constructors’ Championship with Haas.

Hill believes Red Bull should have handled the situation with Ricciardo better than ‘word of mouth’ rumours when speaking on the F1 Nation podcast.

Daniel Ricciardo exit announcement ‘a damp squib’ says Damon Hill

Red Bull has a history of unceremonious exits from their F1 teams over the years, notably how they handled replacing Daniil Kvyat with Max Verstappen after a difficult start to the 2016 season.

In the case of Ricciardo, there was little effort from the team to communicate that he would be his last race despite telling him after Baku. The RB team seemingly told media leading up to Singapore they expected Ricciardo to be in the car at Austin, in response to rumours that he was getting replaced.

Hill believes they should have given him a proper send-off rather than turn the situation into a ‘damp squib’ for the fan favourite.

“It’s hard for any sportsman to deal with. It was more like there was a rumour. It became such a strong rumour that it was almost taken as read that that was the news. And of course, it turned out to be true,” said Hill.

“As far as we know, it was no real clear [annnouncement]. It got to the point where you think Red Bull could have said ‘Listen, everyone is talking about it, we know it’s going to happen. This is Daniel’s last race. If you want to say goodbye and well done, then now’s your time.’ Instead it went out as a bit of a damp squib.”

Helmut Marko wanted Daniel Ricciardo out after Spanish GP after ‘disastrous’ race

Ricciardo was on the cusp of an early exit after an inconsistent weekend during the Miami GP earlier in the season, in which he finished 15th in the race.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner revealed Helmut Marko wanted him out of the car as early as the Spanish GP following the ‘disastrous’ weekend in Miami.

Horner has since refused to rule out a comeback for Ricciardo in the future if either Sergio Perez or Liam Lawson fail to impress but also cited his age as a potential drawback.

It appears any comeback is now unlikely for the Australian, despite being a popular driver among fans of the championship.