Visa Cash App RB Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has admitted that the Faenza squad as a whole failed to make things work for Daniel Ricciardo during the Aussie's truncated 2024 F1 season.
Ricciardo, brought back to Red Bull's orbit in 2023 as a potential replacement for Sergio Perez, faced an uphill battle to reclaim his former glory.
His initial return in place of underperforming Nyck de Vries was undermined by a hand injury at the Dutch Grand Prix that disrupted his momentum.
Despite a full off-season to prepare, Ricciardo struggled this year to find consistent performance at the wheel of RB's VCARB 01.
Although he showed glimpses of brilliance – including a stellar sprint race in Miami where he finished fourth and an impressive fifth-place qualifying in Canada – Ricciardo was consistently outshined by teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Ultimately, RB opted to part ways with Ricciardo after the Singapore Grand Prix, promoting reserve driver Liam Lawson in his place.
Reflecting on the Australian driver's underwhelming season, Mekies concedes that the team itself bears much of the blame.
"The question we have been asked the most was: 'Can Daniel still produce the ultimate speed we have seen?' I think he has on a few occasions, in Miami, in Canada and quite a few other races,” Mekies explained in an interview with Motorsport.com.
So, he did produce that ultimate speed that took him to race wins in the past.
"But for the team, as for the drivers, the biggest difficulty is not to be fast one day. It's to be fast in every race.
“Did we manage to keep Daniel in that sweet spot often enough? No, that's the reality.
“I raised my hand and we raised our hands as a team, because we have a big part to play in it. And this led to what happened."
Mekies revealed that Ricciardo's struggles prompted the team to dive deeply into the car's development, indirectly benefiting his replacement, Lawson, as well as Tsunoda.
“We have explored a large part of the car's envelope with Daniel,” the Frenchman said. “It's a never-ending process.
“You do that every time you have a new update, or every time you have a new characteristic. But certainly, Daniel pushed us to explore that envelope, and it gave the engineering team a very good background of what the car would and couldn't do.”
Despite the disappointing results, Mekies praised Ricciardo's technical feedback and race-winning mindset, which he says were instrumental in driving the team's development.
“There was a huge benefit for the team and for Yuki in terms of Daniel's technical feedback, direction of development, race-winning approach,” he said.
“Having someone that knows how it is in a team that wins races, that fights for championships, is setting the benchmark and that counts a lot in a time where you are trying to build the team and target better results.
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“That benefit has been huge, also in terms of car understanding and car development.
“And I think Yuki has been developing a good relationship with Daniel to the extent that he has been able to absorb quite a lot of that and to keep progressing himself in that area.”
Ricciardo's stint with RB may not have yielded the consistent results that many hoped for, but his contributions behind the scenes have left a lasting impact.
While Lawson has seized the opportunity to shine in Ricciardo's absence, Tsunoda, too, has grown from the experience of working alongside a seasoned veteran.
For now, the focus for RB remains on building for the future, with lessons learned from a difficult yet valuable chapter in its history.
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