Christian Horner issues compelling Daniel Ricciardo theory after Red Bull axe swung

Christian Horner has a theory that Daniel Ricciardo may have struggled with adapting to trickier F1 machinery as he got older.

Ricciardo’s F1 career appears to be over, with the Australian having been dropped from Red Bull’s VCARB driver line-up for the remaining races of the F1 2024 championship.

Christian Horner: Daniel Ricciardo quickly got the upper hand on Sebastian Vettel

Ricciardo made his name in a stellar 2014 season when, having been promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull, he came out on top against Sebastian Vettel as the four-time World Champion didn’t immediately gel with the new characteristics of the hybrid-powered V6s.

Ricciardo won three races to Vettel’s zero, with the young driver taking over as the de facto team leader when Vettel left for Ferrari after that season.

But Ricciardo has found himself on the other side of the coin in recent years, with Lando Norris getting the better of him at McLaren, and Yuki Tsunoda usually having legs on him at AlphaTauri/VCARB – cars that, while competitive, were not of the ilk of the front-running Red Bulls he drove up until 2018.

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner revealed his theory that some older drivers struggle for adaptability as they age – perhaps contributing to Ricciardo’s struggles.

“When you get to Formula 1, you’re getting a huge amount of information because you’ve got everybody analysing how hard you hit the brake, where you brake, when you brake, your style, your positioning, the energy that you’re putting through the tyre – all of those elements,” he said.

“So you’re getting all of those cues. What you tend to find with a young guy, and Daniel was exactly the same that, when he jumped in our car alongside Sebastian Vettel, the young guys, they just seem to have the ability to adapt very quickly.

“Maybe because they’re not spoiled by other preconceptions of how a car should be, they just adapt and drive the thing quickly, which was exactly what Daniel did back in 2014 – we’d gone from obviously the V8s to the V6s and the car that year had a different characteristic. All the exhaust blowing had gone and so on, which made the car a little more nervous on entry.

“He, very quickly, got the upper hand on Sebastian that year in 2014 and was able to cope with that way better than Seb did and, indeed, went on to win three races that year at Spa and Hungary, and, of course, his first race win in Montreal.

“I think it’s perhaps as they get longer into their career, they’re less accommodating of driving not-so-great cars, or cars that have vices, because they’re always benchmarking it against some of the better cars that they’ve had.

“It’s difficult to say, but the young guys, they get in, they’re hungry, and they just drive the wheels off it, and that’s what we’re seeing with all these juniors that are coming in at the moment.

“They’re well prepared, they race well, they understand how to conserve the tyres, and so on. [Oliver] Bearman and [Franco] Colapinto have done a super job.

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Christian Horner: Lack of consistency played against Daniel Ricciardo

While Ricciardo showed flashes of the speed and bravery that made him such a stand-out while at Red Bull Racing, Horner said his sporadic form wasn’t enough to secure a return.

“I think it was the lack of consistency,” said Horner.

“I mean, he started the season roughly, and then Miami was a weekend of two halves. The Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic, and it looked like the Daniel of old, defending against Ferraris and out-driving the car.

“But then the Saturday afternoon and the Sunday were disastrous.

“And even around Barcelona, Helmut wanted him out of the car, and there was already a lot of pressure on him there.

“I’ve done my very best to buy him as much time in the car to allow him to deliver, otherwise he would have been out of the car after Barcelona.”

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