Daniel Ricciardo blow as Audi F1 hopeful teases ‘obvious’ Red Bull decision

RB driver Daniel Ricciardo is hoping to stay on the grid for 2025.

Daniel Ricciardo is battling to secure his Formula 1 future with a Red Bull team, but it is “obvious” Liam Lawson will take his VCARB seat.

That is the opinion of current Formula 2 title contender and McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto, a driver reportedly on the radar of Mattia Binotto to join the F1 2025 grid with Sauber, to become Audi from 2026.

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With Red Bull dropping strong hints of change on the way going into the F1 2024 summer break, Ricciardo found himself in a unique situation where he could potentially be returning to the main Red Bull team – if Sergio Perez was dismissed – or losing his seat at junior team VCARB to Red Bull’s impressive reserve Liam Lawson who is waiting in the wings.

Ultimately, Red Bull opted against change, but with Ricciardo yet to be confirmed as a VCARB driver beyond F1 2024, the pressure is on after the summer break to see off the Lawson threat, though a return to Red Bull is not out of the question.

However, Bortoleto believes it is an “obvious” decision for Red Bull to place Lawson alongside Yuki Tsunoda at VCARB next season.

“RB is still open, but we already know – is it Ricciardo there or is it Lawson? It’s kind of obvious,” said Bortoleto in an interview with Motorsport.com’s Brazilian arm.

“If they don’t put Lawson in, I don’t know what’s going on in their heads. I think that Lawson deserves it at the moment for having done all the development work for the team in recent years while he was unable to compete.”

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Meanwhile at Sauber, Nico Hulkenberg is already signed for 2025 and beyond into the Audi era, with current drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu left to battle with one remaining seat up for grabs.

Should Sauber decide to retain either driver, Bortoleto is not sure whether it would be Bottas or Zhou who gets the nod.

“I don’t know about Sauber, there’s Zhou and Bottas to leave, but I don’t know who will stay,” he said.

Of course, Bortoleto could end up beating them both to that vacancy according to the rumours, though Bortoleto said this claim came as a “surprise” to him.

“That’s nice, to be mentioned by an F1 person, because that’s where you want to get to,” he added, in reference to Binotto’s reported interest.

“But let’s see what the future holds. I’m doing my job as best I can in F2, not in difficulty, but so that I’m ready to move up to F1. I’d say that’s my situation at the moment.”

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