"Getting old" Daniel Ricciardo hit with "retirement" warning
"He isn't as impressive as he was" accusation dealt to RB's Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo is edging towards retirement unless he can find the form of his younger years, he has been warned.
The veteran RB driver entered the 2024 F1 season hoping to prove his worth, and earn a step up into the Red Bull next year.
But his results haven't yet justified displacing Sergio Perez, and Ricciardo has been told that he might not earn any full-time drive in 2025 and beyond.
L'Equipe's Fred Ferret, speaking before the F1 Australian Grand Prix, told the F1 Nation podcast about Ricciardo's other options: "Retirement. If he is still in this way of driving, from the [first] two races, I would say yes.
"We thought the new [RB] should have been the car to be beaten, because it's a copy of the RB19.
"But the others made huge progress so it's still the RB19 but in the middle of the grid.
"Yuki Tsunoda is performing better. If Daniel doesn't perform better, it's going to be tough for him."
Natalie Pinkham added: "Daniel reported some pretty tough challenges with the car in Saudi.
"And yet, Helmut Marko was public in his pressure on Daniel yet again.
"If there was a problem on the car, then presumably Marko knew about it. But he chose to speak out publically about Daniel.
"He has the experience to bounce back from this."
Ricciardo was ditched by McLaren after a rough 2022 where he trailed Lando Norris and found himself without a full-time race seat last year.
But he was drafted in midway through to inject some experience into Red Bull's sister team AlphaTauri.
He earned the opportunity after an impressive test in the Red Bull which delighted Christian Horner.
Ricciardo's latter half of 2023 was then blighted by injury which gave Liam Lawson a brief chance to show what Red Bull and AlphaTauri were missing.
Ferret argued: "When Daniel moved from Red Bull to Renault it took him some time to deliver.
"When he moved from Renault to McLaren, he never delivered, even if he won [one grand prix].
"When he moved from McLaren to [RB] he isn't as impressive as he was.
"He's getting old and he's not able to come back in every car that he has to drive."
Pinkham said: "Looking at race results, you are right.
"But there are so many caveats. It is littered with caveats.
"That McLaren was so difficult to drive. Lando has only ever known that McLaren, he grew with the team.
"[Ricciardo] did perform at Renault. He outperformed the car arguably.
"And he broke his hand at Zandvoort [for AlphaTauri last year]! That was a horrible setback for him.
"And actually it looked as if he was going to do something in that car, towards the latter half of the season.
"I'm a fan, a supporter, of his. But I recognise that you've got to put the work in, and get the results. It's a results driven game.
"But I believe he can do that."
