I’ll speak to this more later, but in my opinion, Red Bull’s decision to drop Ricciardo mid-season is yet another ruthless, shameful decision by the team for a few reasons:
1. Back in Franz Tost’s era, Yuki Tsunoda had struggles of his own for a long time, and Helmut Marko (a boss at Red Bull) even called him a “problem child”. But Tost nurtured Tsunoda, saw his potential, and now Yuki’ seeing great success. Proves to show Red Bull’s inconsistency with their driver system.
2. Ricciardo’s favorite Grand Prix was literally next up, and he didn’t know he’d be kicked out until after Singapore! He didn’t get the send off every driver deserves.
3. On that point, apparently his replacement Liam Lawson knew that this was happening months ago! All of it was pre-planned and kept secret from Daniel. In what world is that the right thing to do to a driver that’s been a catalyst for Red Bull’s current success?
4. Given the severe lack of performance from Perez that’s likely gonna cost Red Bull the constructors championship, it’s hypocritical that he hasn’t been given the boot.
5. This seems to be all about money and desperately keeping everything they’ve got, whether it’s worth it or not, given that Liam Lawson is free to leave red Bull after September ends.
Overall, in my view, Red Bull has done it with Gasly, Albon, De Vries, and now again with Ricciardo. 4 perfectly talented drivers squandered simply because of a worse phase. Comment below on your opinion!