Christian Horner on Daniel Ricciardo's departure and Liam Lawson's return

Tom Clarkson (0:05)

He won races. He thrilled us with his overtaking. His enormous smile lit up the sport, but Daniel Ricciardo's F1 journey looks like it's over. Daniel's departure gives Liam Lawson a chance to show what he can do driving alongside Yuki Sanoda at Vcarb. And we're gonna discuss it all here on F1 Nation. I'm Tom Clarkson, and with me is the 1996 Formula 1 World Champion, Damon Hill. Well, DH, what do you make of it?

Damon Hill (0:38)

Well, we sort of knew it was coming, didn't we? We just didn't know quite when, and the way in which it was announced was a little bit... Well, it wasn't very clear, but anyway, Daniel seems to have had his chips as far as top drive in Formula 1 goes, or at least another stab at top drive. I don't know, you should never say never in this game, but it does look that way.

Tom Clarkson (1:02)

Well, it appears to be the end now, and let's get the inside story from Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner. Christian, it is great to have you on the show. How are things?

Christian Horner (1:14)

Yeah, good. Good. Obviously, in the middle of a... It's not a three-week break, is it? Because we're actually working flat out, so it's just between races.

Tom Clarkson (1:22)

Yeah. Well, look, can we talk about Daniel? You've made this decision. Look, why now, first of all? Why not let him see out the rest of the season?

Christian Horner (1:32)

Well, of course, in a perfect world, that would have been what we would have done. But from a broader perspective, we need answers for the bigger picture in terms of drivers. And of course, with six races remaining, it's a perfect opportunity to line Liam up alongside Yuki to see how he performs over the remaining six Grand Prix.

Tom Clarkson (1:58)

Well, what is the bigger picture here? Are we talking just Vcarb or is this Red Bull Racing as well?

Christian Horner (2:04)

No, this goes beyond Vcarb. It encompasses Red Bull Racing. Obviously, we've got a contract with Sergio for next year. But you've always got to have an eye out in terms of what comes next. And is that going to be Liam or do we need to look outside the pool?

Or will one of the other juniors step up in the fullness of time with this? Isaac Hadger or Arvin Lindblad?

Damon Hill (2:33)

Christian, how do you determine where the talent is now? Because it seems to me that the guys that come in to F1, we've seen it recently with Colapinto and also with Baerman as well. But I mean, guys who jump in seem to be incredibly well prepared already. I'm not sure it was always the case.

Is that partly why, Danny, he's up against guys, he's mentioned it himself, that he's up against people who are really well prepared before they even arrive?

Christian Horner (3:04)

Well, there's been a few surprises. I find it so hard to read form in Formula 2 these days because when you look at the job that Oliver Baerman's done, when he jumped in both at Ferrari and one of the toughest tracks on the calendar in Saudi, he looked like a veteran.

And then again, having done so against a tough teammate with Nico Hülkenberg, more recently. And then, Colapinto, I think, has been a complete surprise because he was largely unnoticed in F2. Nobody was even talking about it. And then he jumped in at Williams and in the couple of races that he's done, he's been exceptional. He's been really, really impressive. So, so difficult to tell. does that mean Isaac Hadgard that was beating all of them is another, another step on, you know, until we give these guys a chance, we won't know.

Tom Clarkson (4:00)

But when you think, Christian, that Daniel's end game in the comeback was to to race for Red Bull Racing again, can you just talk us through why it hasn't happened? Where's he fallen short?

Christian Horner (4:16)

That's a tricky one. I mean, Daniel, I didn't recognize the Daniel at the end of his tenure at McLaren. And, you know, I said to him, why don't you come and join us? Rediscover your passion for the sport. We've got a whole bunch of sponsors and partners and Max hates doing all that stuff. So, you know, you're going to shake a few hands and turn up to a few events. But if there's the opportunity to stick you back in the car, you can see if you've still got it. If you rediscover your mojo. He picked up some really bad habits when he came back from McLaren in the car and got bit by bit working with his old engineering team. He started to find his form again. And then we stuck him in the car for a test at Silverstone just after Grand Prix and he knew that was a big test for him. Because Nick devries had been slightly underwhelming in the Alpha Tour at the time. And of course, we needed a backup solution for Sergio if he weren't to deliver. So Daniel put in an outstanding performance at Silverstone. And then based off that, we decided to put him into the Alpha Tour for the remainder of the year.