Interesting reason given for why Red Bull didn’t replace Sergio Perez with Daniel Ricciardo for 2024

Follow us on Google Discover

There were plenty of Formula 1 fans who were expecting Red Bull Racing to replace Sergio Perez with Daniel Ricciardo heading into the 2024 season.

The Mexican driver had helped earn Red Bull a Constructors’ Championship alongside Max Verstappen but underwhelmed for much of the year.

However, journalist Lawrence Edmondson has shared on the Unlapped Podcast the reason why he thinks Daniel Ricciardo didn’t replace Sergio Perez heading into this season.

Much of the 2024 season is going to be spent speculating about Perez’s future at Red Bull.

He’s entered the final year of his deal and given he’s in the fastest car on the grid, there are plenty of drivers who would fancy replacing him.

One of those drivers is Ricciardo who admitted last year that it’s his dream to finish his career at Red Bull, which may be worrying Perez right now.

However, the Red Bull group as a whole have plenty of different objectives that they want to achieve.

One of those is the advancement of Visa Cash App RB, also known as V-CARB or simply just RB.

It’s a lucrative deal for the team and that might have played a part in Helmut Marko and Christian Horner’s decision to maintain their driver line-ups heading into 2024.

V-CARB could have played role in Red Bull sticking with Perez over Ricciardo

Speaking about the AlphaTauri name change and the marketing aspect of the team, Edmondson said: “To go to the [Daniel] Ricciardo point, we talked about it a lot last season and a lot of fans I’ve seen in other places have asked in comments to other articles they’ve said well why won’t Red Bull promote Ricciardo in place of [Sergio] Perez, this is exactly why!

“They wanted their big-name driver to lead this newly-named team and if you’re Visa, you’re coming in and they can lead very heavily on a personality like Ricciardo.

“I think they can have a lot of fun about the fact that everyone hates the name. I think you’ve got a guy in there, and Yuki [Tsunoda] as well, just not caring.

“I think they’ve got two great drivers to deal with that situation if that makes sense, in terms of the media. Once we’re into the season, I think those two guys will be really key.

“It’s hard to dislike those two guys and I think that’s really going to help the team out because people are going to say, the team sucks but I still really like the drivers.

“Keeping Ricciardo in and hoping Ricciardo with a full season under his belt is good again as he was a few years back.”

Ricciardo has commented on Visa Cash App RB’s new name but would be disappointed if he did miss out on a Red Bull drive ahead of Perez for marketing reasons.

However, Red Bull manage everything so carefully that it’s not completely far-fetched that it played a role in their decision.

The Australian didn’t put in a consistent level of performance when he returned last year which forced Red Bull’s hand.

It’s up to Ricciardo or even Yuki Tsunoda to prove in 2024 that they should be Red Bull’s first choice should Perez move on.