Daniel Ricciardo admits ‘big downfall’ holding RB driver back after Red Bull snub

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Daniel Ricciardo opens up on his ‘big downfall’ that is holding the Visa Cash App RB driver back, following Red Bull giving Sergio Perez their vote of confidence for now.

Question marks had lingered over if Perez would survive the summer break at Red Bull with Ricciardo or Liam Lawson primed to step up. But the team from Milton Keynes removed the lasting doubt a day after the Mexican fell from second to seventh in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Red Bull are backing Perez to rediscover the form which only saw them give the 34-year-old a two-year contract extension in June. Ricciardo, seemingly, failed to deliver enough with RB to show the main team that he would help Red Bull edge McLaren in the constructors’ fight.

Daniel Ricciardo admits qualifying has been the RB driver’s ‘big downfall’

Ricciardo had started the 2024 Formula 1 season poorly to see Yuki Tsunoda dominate their head-to-head battle. But the 35-year-old, finally, found a groove at the Canadian Grand Prix to score his first main race points. He also finished the Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix in P4.

Tsunoda has only scored three of his 22 points this year in the six rounds since the Canadian GP, compared to Ricciardo scoring seven of his 12. The Australian got P8 in Montreal, before taking a P9 finish in the Austrian Grand Prix and a P10 finish last time out at the Belgian GP.

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His run of results was not enough to convince Red Bull to pay Perez off and bring Ricciardo back to Milton Keynes, however. The eight-time Grand Prix winner (including seven for Red Bull from 2014 to 2018) also admits his qualifying form has been Ricciardo’s main weakness.

“What I haven’t done well is probably just put it under the consistency bracket,” Ricciardo has told RacingNews365.

“Sometimes it’s knowing, sometimes it’s still a bit unknown. But we haven’t been able to just be that consistent ‘Q3 guy’ or get the points every weekend. So, that’s where I haven’t done well week-in, week-out. And in this sport, that could be a big downfall.”

Daniel Ricciardo has only reached Q3 in three of the 14 rounds this season

Across the first 14 of Formula 1’s record-breaking 24-round calendar for 2024, Ricciardo has only reached Q3 three times. The RB driver has even bowed out in Q1 the same amount of times thus far. Tsunoda in the other VCARB 01 has reached Q3 eight times to three Q1 exits.

Ricciardo first reached Q3 this year in round seven en route to qualifying in P9 for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which he finished in P13. He then qualified in P5 for the Canadian GP, before finishing in P8, and qualified in P9 for the Hungarian Grand Prix but finished it in P12.

The Canadian GP and Hungarian GP were rounds nine and 13 of the 2024 Formula 1 season. In between them, Ricciardo could only qualify in P18 for the Spanish Grand Prix, P16 for the Austrian Grand Prix and P15 for the British Grand Prix. Yet he did score points in P9 in Styria.