Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, Red Bull’s sister team, has faced a difficult season this year. Daniel Ricciardo has failed to perform in most of the races and their only saving grace has been Yuki Tsunoda’s increased performance with the car this season.
Who is to blame? The Drivers or the Car?
Daniel has only managed to score a total of 12 points in the past 18 Grand Prix’s, whereas Yuki has scored 22 points.
Daniel Ricciardo was only brought back by Red Bull, because Nyck de Vries started failing as a driver, scoring no points in the 2023 season.
So, Alpha Tauri (the Racing Bulls) swapped Daniel for Nyck, hoping to cut down their loses. But, sadly for the team, Daniel only managed to score 6 points in the Mexican Grand Prix, and that was all.
This year, Daniel, the man with several Grand Prix wins to his name, someone widely described as a “the master of late braking” found himself in the crosshairs for poor form. The Perth-born scored no more than 12 points for the Visa Cash App team. And that’s despite having been given ample opportunities to show his skill.
As a matter of factly, the Singapore Grand Prix was widely described as his last dance in Formula 1.
And then what did the F1 world, both on and off the grid see?
Daniel was spotted sitting in his car longer than usual upon the conclusion of the race at the electrifying racing venue simmering under bright lights.
Later on, in his interview with the press, he was emotional and said that it could be it.
The flood of emotions weren’t hard to evade either. Then came the heartening declaration that “I had gotten used to the cockpit for many years.”
Eventually, the Racing Bulls have finally announced, on Friday 27th, to be precise, that Daniel Ricciardo shall no longer race for them for the remainder of the season.
So what happens at RB team now?
For the Racing Bulls, the big question was who to replace Daniel with.
The answer…
The brilliant young man Liam Lawson, reserve driver for Red Bull and part of the junior program of Red Bull, who has been seen multiple times in the pit garage of the Racing Bulls.
What’s to come in the next six Grand Prix’s for RB?
Source– F1 Chronicle (www.f1chronicle.com)
With Daniel gone, the RB team will replace him with Liam Lawson, who actually stepped in for actual Grand Prix racing last year at Zandvoort when none other than Daniel himself suffered a hand injury, resulting from a scary-looking crash at Mad Verstappen territory.
Currently, the Racing Bulls are sixth, with 34 points, in the Constructor’ Championship.
Who they do sense has the most chances of filing ahead?
(Source– F1chronicle.com)
Haas, currently seventh, with 31 points, are only 3 points behind. The major focus of the Racing Bulls is to maximize their race points as these last six races will determine which team places sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.
The Racing Bulls’ team, by replacing Daniel could very much succeed in maintaining their position in the Constructors’ Championship, and maybe, just maybe, they might place fifth, just ahead of Aston Martin, which have a total of 86 points.
It is possible that if Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson turn out to be a good pair, not that they can’t, provided Liam Lawson shows his amazing talent, which he has already proved last year, when he substituted for Daniel, when Daniel broke his hand.
Liam Lawson, when substituting for Daniel Ricciardo, in 2023, out qualified Yuki Tsunoda in 1 race and classified better than Yuki in 2 out of the 5 races.
Liam has already been guaranteed a seat in Formula 1, in 2025 by Helmut Marko.
The bright new force for RB
Kiwi racer Liam Lawson has shown great composure and clear mind during his short stint in F1 last year.
He even received praise from the Red Bull team Principal Christian Horner, who said that he (Liam) ticks all the boxes.
Back at Singapore in 2023, he managed to knock out the three-time world champion Max Verstappen, after which Franz Tost, Racing Bulls Team Principal, had declared that Liam deserves to be in F1, 100%.
Yuki Tsunoda, the Japanese Driver, by this time last year had only scored a measly 3 points. But this year, he has shown fierce competition to all other drivers.
He has managed to get a few fastest laps in Practice sessions across multiple races, and qualified as high as 5th on the grid, scoring a total of 22 points this season. The Sagamihara-born trounced Ricciardo, no lame talent in the sport, in all but seven races. Currently, Yuki stands 10 points ahead of the Australian.
Both Yuki and Liam are excellent talents. In fact, one of Japan’s finest exports to the world of F1 didn’t take long to get going.
At the 2021 Bahrain GP, which was his maiden race, Yuki scored a ninth.
Source– f1chronicle.com
Together with Liam, the duo will look to push an enterprising racing unit, but one that surely is anything but the fastest on the grid. In fact, far from it. One of key questions, therefore, is whether RB’s new duo can place the team to a pedestal even higher than Aston Martin?