Helmut Marko Contradicts Himself After Calling Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda “Too Slow” as He Changes His Statement

Red Bull currently has quite a weird driver dilemma at hand concerning its sister team, Visa Cash App RB. With Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, and Yuki Tsunoda going out of contract at the end of 2024, and young talent in Liam Lawson waiting on the sidelines, Red Bull was hoping that they could replace Checo with Ricciardo in 2025 to make room for the New Zealander. However, for that to happen, the Honey Badger was supposed to beat his teammate, Tsunoda, who is in his fourth season with the team. However, despite the optimism surrounding the Aussie at the start of the season, he has been thoroughly beaten by the Japanese driver. And Yuki’s qualifying performance in the Australian Grand Prix has caused Helmut Marko to move away from one of his earlier statements about the two drivers.

The pressure is mounting on both Ricciardo and Tsunoda to prove their worth for a potential spot in Red Bull Racing. However, after having failed to score a single point in the opening two rounds, Helmut Marko labeled both the drivers as “too slow” on track. However, Yuki Tsunoda left a mighty impression in today’s qualifying session, making it all the way to Q3, while Daniel Ricciardo was knocked out of the first part of qualifying. Tsunoda’s performance garnered praise from the Red Bull motorsport advisor as he now believes Yuki has had the pace all this time.

“He made it into the top 10 again, that was an incredible achievement, he was always there, without making any mistakes,” said Helmut Marko told ServusTV. “I hope that he can now get into the points because the speed is there. That was the case in the first two races. That would be great because the first five teams are so strong that you can manage to get in there, that’s an incredible achievement.”

Despite being the favorite to make a dream return to Red Bull Racing, Ricciardo’s F1 career seems to be on its last leg as doubts start to creep into his mind.

Daniel Ricciardo feels even his best lap of 2024 was slower than Yuki Tsunoda

Daniel Ricciardo found himself facing a tough challenge during the qualifying session for tomorrow’s race. Initially sitting in a decent 12th position in the first qualifying session (Q1), Ricciardo’s hopes were shattered when his lap time was deleted due to exceeding track limits, causing him to fall to 18th place. Even without this setback, Ricciardo struggled to keep up with the pace set by his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, who managed to secure the 8th spot on the grid.

Expressing his disappointment, Ricciardo admitted to feeling “puzzled“ by his inability to match Tsunoda’s performance. Despite feeling satisfied with his own lap, Ricciardo felt surprised as to why it wasn’t enough to measure up to Tsunoda’s pace. “From my side, I felt like I got everything out of it. And then when I saw it still wasn’t good enough, let’s say, compared to Yuki. I’m still a bit puzzled because I know what those laps normally mean. So, I crossed the line, being like ‘Yeah, that was a good one’. Obviously, the time got deleted, but the lap itself was definitely the best quali lap I’ve done this year,“ Autosport quoted the Honey Badger.

Despite his frustrations, Ricciardo expressed confidence in the overall performance of his car, particularly in terms of braking and balance. However, he acknowledged that there were certain corners where he struggled to match the speeds achieved by his teammate.

READ MORE: Daniel Ricciardo “Skeptical” About VCARB’s Performance After Yuki Tsunoda Embarrassed Him in Qualifying

At this rate, do you think Daniel Ricciardo could suffer the same fate Nyck de Vries faced last season with AlphaTauri? Share your insights in the comments down below.