Daniel Ricciardo’s exit from RB and Formula 1 was not handled in a “good enough manner”, team principal Laurent Mekies has admitted.
Ricciardo lost his seat to Red Bull reserve Liam Lawson in a move announced via coordinated social media posts from driver and team four days after what proved the Australian’s final race for them at last month’s Singapore Grand Prix.
But the strong likelihood that Ricciardo was poised to be replaced had already become an open-secret across the Singapore weekend despite no official confirmation emerging from either Red Bull-owned team.
Ricciardo himself was unable to formally announce the news at the event, or stage a formal public goodbye, despite having to answer repeated media questions over his future.
Almost one month on and speaking to Sky Sports F1 at last week’s United States GP, Mekies conceded the eight-time race winner’s departure should have been handled differently.
“Of course we are not happy, you are absolutely right, we are not happy and we don’t think we have done it in a good enough manner,” the RB team principal told Ted Kravitz.
“There is no argument about that.
“The reasons behind (how it was handled) would be excuses so I don’t want even want to go into the reasons but what is clear is that we have had many discussions with Daniel and both the team and the driver were aware we were going in to that weekend with this impossible situation to deal with.
“We chose rightly, wrongly – probably wrongly – we chose together for many decent reasons to keep it confidential until the end of the weekend. Obviously it meant it went through such a difficult weekend that we quickly realised it was not the thing we would have liked.”
Although admitting regrets about the situation, Mekies said he was nonetheless pleased to see the hugely-popular Ricciardo ultimately receive acclaim from across the sport and its fanbase.
“Having said that it was wrong, and it was something we would do better if you had to do it again, I think the whole paddock, all the fans out there they found a way,” Mekies added.
“They found the way to get the love to him, to get the empathy to him, and maybe even more than if we had done perhaps something more traditional.
“Daniel has shown there he is bigger than an F1 driver, he is probably bigger than F1. We all love Daniel and I’m sure somehow this got to him the right away.”
Max Verstappen, who drove alongside Ricciardo at Red Bull from 2016 to 2018 and has become firm friends with the Australian, agreed that his former team-mate “deserved a nicer exit”.
“I think it was quite clear for me, for Daniel that it was the last race. From my side, I think it could have been handled a bit differently. Also for him, because he knew it, but if you can’t say it exactly…” said Verstappen.
“It’s a bit of shame. He’s done a lot for F1. He’s won races, he has had incredible races. I think it deserved a nicer exit.”
‘He looked like a veteran’ – Horner impressed by Lawson as Perez pressure keeps mounting
While Ricciardo’s exit from Red Bull’s sister team appears to have triggered the end of his career as a driver in the sport after 13 years, his 22-year-old replacement Lawson did his case for his own long stay on the grid no harm at all in his first racing appearance for a year in Austin.
Taking over Ricciardo’s engine allocation for the season, Lawson went into the weekend knowing he had a grid penalty to serve for a new unit – which dropped him from 15th to 19th on the grid – but he raced impressively from the back row to score two points in ninth. That included overtaking team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who had started 10th.
The Kiwi has only been confirmed in the RB seat for the remainder of this season but the likelihood of a full season in 2025 was considered a formality even before his race-day performance in Austin.
But with Sergio Perez continuing to underperform in the main Red Bull team, the bigger question appears to be whether Lawson will do enough next to Tsunoda over the final five races to earn an immediate promotion to the world champion team over the winter.
Assessing Lawson’s comeback performance in the USA, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1: “A sample of one (but) I thought he jumped in and he looked like a veteran, to be honest with you.
“He’s a great racer, I think he can be very happy with that drive. I thought he drove a great Grand Prix. Starting 19th, finishing in the points, some great overtakes so he should be pleased with that.
“When you are upsetting Fernando (Alonso) you know you are doing something right! He’s a tough hard racer.”
Perez, meanwhile, finished four places and 40 seconds behind his team-mate Verstappen in seventh and Horner again admitted: “We really need to have the delta between the two drivers closer because you could see two Ferraris, two McLarens, they are hunting in pairs.”
The sustained poor form of Perez, who signed a contract extension to cover the 2025 and 2026 seasons earlier this year, has contributed to Red Bull dropping behind McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship – who they trail by 40 points – and being in danger of being leapfrogged by Ferrari too after the Scuderia’s one-two in Austin moved them within eight points of the reigning champions.
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