Daniel Ricciardo will remain the VCARB driver after the 2024 F1 summer break after junior team Red Bull made no changes to its driver line-up, it has learned.
It comes after it was revealed on Monday that Sergio Perez would remain a teammate of Max Verstappen despite a poor finish in the first part of F1 2024.
Red Bull held a mid-season meeting at its Milton Keynes headquarters on Monday, attended by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko.
Decisions relating to the futures of Perez and Ricciardo, who struggled compared to their teammates during the early part of the 2024 F1 season, were high on the agenda.
Although Pérez signed a new two-year contract last month, a clause that would be in his revised agreement had given Red Bull the strength to abandon the Mexican driver if he encountered more than a hundred problems with his teammate Max Verstappen. of the summer holidays.
The gap increased to 146 at the weekend’s Belgium Grand Prix, where Perez finished seventh.
? 2025 F1 driver line-up: who is already present on the 2025 grid?
? F1 driver contracts: what is the prestige of the driver contract on the 2024 grid?
However, it emerged on Monday that Perez would be retained via Red Bull for the second part of the season, which begins with the Dutch Grand Prix on August 25.
Ricciardo, who in the past enjoyed a successful five-season spell at Red Bull between 2014 and 2018, had been seen as one of the top contenders to upgrade Perez and merit Red Bull making a change.
With Perez’s long career resolved, Red Bull also made a resolution related to Ricciardo, with the 35-year-old driver also expected to remain where he is after F1’s annual summer break.
It is unclear whether the issue of either driver’s future will be broached again in the second part of the 2024 F1 campaign, as Ricciardo does not yet have a deal presented for next season.
Ricciardo’s retention comes after an improvement in form in recent weeks, with the Australian having scoring problems in 3 of the last six races before the summer lockdown – his most consistent run of spin since returning to F1 with VCARB (then AlphaTauri) a year ago. Training
It remains to be seen what effect the decision on Ricciardo’s future career will have on Liam Lawson, Red Bull’s much-loved reserve driver who has attracted interest from Audi, the German manufacturer that will take over the current Sauber team in 2026.
Lawson inspired a five-race appearance while replacing the injured Ricciardo in mid-2023, earning the Red Bull junior team’s result at this level of the season with a ninth-place finish in Singapore.
However, the New Zealander failed to identify himself in VCARB’s plans for F1 2024, and the team decided to stick with Ricciardo alongside Yuki Tsuonda.
Rumours have intensified in recent weeks that Lawson, who tested Red Bull’s RB20 car at Silverstone after the British Grand Prix, would receive a promotion in mid-2024, with Marko revealing that Red Bull shareholders will see VCARB’s return to its Toro Rosso roots as a team to exercise young drivers.
However, Red Bull and VCARB’s most recent ruling in relation to Ricciardo may force Lawson to look elsewhere for serious opportunities.
Marko revealed earlier this year that a clause in the 22-year-old’s contract would allow him to leave Red Bull entirely if he is promoted to a permanent role for the 2025 F1 season.
PlanetF1. com understands that Red Bull’s contract to promote Lawson expires in September.
Read: The F1 driver’s movements planned after Carlos Sainz’s domino crash