Mekies: Ricciardo helped us, but we will have to decide quickly

Visa RB boss Laurent Mekies said the team must decide quickly on the prospects of working with Daniel Ricciardo, although he made it clear that this is not the most unpleasant issue to resolve.

Over the first 14 stages of the season, Ricciardo has scored just 12 points, while his Japanese teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, has scored 22. The Australian’s best races so far this season have been the Miami sprint and the Canadian Grand Prix, where he finished in 4th and 8th places, respectively.

It seems that Red Bull has already made a decision about Liam Lawson, who should get a place in one of the teams of the Austrian company, and it is possible that the New Zealander will take Ricciardo’s place next year. Tsunoda’s contract has already been confirmed, but this whole situation causes certain problems for the team management.

“We keep saying that Ricciardo’s inconsistent form is a good problem that we want to solve,” Mekies told RacingNews365. – Yes, we have three experienced drivers, despite the fact that there are only two places in the team. Are we in a hurry to make a decision? No. We have been saying that since the beginning of the year and we also said that we would discuss everything during the summer break.

Can we say that Daniel has a fighting spirit, that he is striving to keep his place in the team? Without a doubt. We often get asked if we think he can return to the level he was at a few years ago with Red Bull? Let’s not forget his performances in Miami and Canada – the only question is: how can we achieve more regular performances at this level?

Overall, we have a very competitive line-up, and we also have an incredibly talented driver in line. Daniel has helped the team progress enormously, and Liam does a very important job in the simulator, even if it is not visible from the outside. But very soon we will have to make a decision.

When we talk about Ricciardo, our job is to provide him with a car whose characteristics allow him to show results in a wide variety of conditions. In fact, we have not yet managed to solve this problem, which means that we need to make additional efforts to achieve this.

At the same time, he knows that he also has to work to adapt to certain circumstances, and if both parties succeed in this, we will be able to perform at the critically required level more often.

I don’t know what they had at McLaren, but I can say that Daniel is very sensitive to all kinds of technical nuances, and we see this as a very important asset to help us modernize the car. I suppose that also means that he is sensitive to those moments when the balance of the car doesn’t suit him…’