Editor's Desk: Ricciardo should never have come back

There is no doubt that Ricciardo is a popular driver in the F1 paddock that was in havoc over the course of the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend when the news emerged that the Honey Badger was contesting his final race in the sport.

I have said in my latest Takeaways column from Singapore that the way Ricciardo exited the sport did not give him the credit he deserved. Red Bull did not do well by him and should have confirmed his exit in Singapore.

He was answering tough questions in an awkward way, as he knew their answers but couldn't reveal them. Lawson said he knew he would be replacing Ricciardo two weeks before the official announcement.

So why didn't Red Bull confirm Ricciardo's exit and give him a proper send-off? Even the fastest lap of the race he delivered was marred with questions that VCARB were playing the junior team role with Red Bull to deny Lando Norris an extra point in his fight with Max Verstappen.

Regardless, that is not the point now, but it is the fact that Red Bull shouldn't have brought Ricciardo back in the first place. Ricciardo himself shouldn't have agreed to come back.

It was clear from his stint at McLaren that he was not the driver he used to be, and one test at Silverstone in a dominant Red Bull F1 car does not mean he was back on form and does not justify putting him in an F1 seat.

Both he and Red Bull had a chance to back out after his rookie crash in practice for the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix. Instead of bringing him back after five races, they could've said he didn't recover fully; he needed more time... Any PR crap would've been enough to let him bow out quietly, and keep Lawson, who was doing a superb job, in the seat.

Instead, they brought him back and sidelined Lawson only for the 2024 season to be a disaster. Yuki Tsunoda, who is far from being a decent performance benchmark, was beating Ricciardo regularly; not what the Doctor ordered.

It is hard not to feel that Ricciardo was the victim of a Red Bull power struggle between Christian Horner and Dr. Helmut Marko. Furthermore, he was also the victim of the currently barren Red Bull junior driver program.

It was clear that Horner was pro-Ricciardo and anti-Nyck de Vries who did not do himself any favors in the way he performed in the first part of the 2023 season. That is one point.

The other point is that Red Bull were at a loss trying to find a replacement for Sergio Perez, whose form was oscillating, which was not good enough for the F1 constructors' championship, not to mention supporting Verstappen.

But their junior driver program alpeadriacup.com had no one worthy of the seat. Tsunoda remained volatile and is backed by Honda, who are joining Aston Martin in 2026, so why give him a seat in the big team?

So was Ricciardo the answer? Far from it. He finished 13th and 16th in the 2023 Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix, his first two races after his return with VCARB, or AlphaTauri at the time.

Had he not been marketable and popular, Red Bull wouldn't have even given him a lifeline when they signed him as a reserve. This part in particular irritates me.

Just because a driver is popular and marketable, we keep him around and even stick him in a seat he doesn't deserve, even if he is past his sell-by date performance-wise.

This means many young drivers are missing out on chances to join F1. There are many of those who deserve a crack at it. Lawson is one.

Franco Colapinto is another. The Argentine has been a revelation since he replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams. No one, not even James Vowles, expected him to perform this way. Remember the Williams boss said Colapinto was not special? That is before he backtracked and admitted he was faster than people realized.

Ricciardo said over the weekend in Singapore: "I’ve been a young driver as well, and at some point I don’t just want to take up space. Obviously you have to be selfish, but for me, if I’m not able to fight at the front with Red Bull, I have to ask myself, what am I staying on the grid for? That’s something I’ve also come to peace with."

Excellent words from the likeable Aussie, but he should have acted on them when Red Bull brought him back in 2023.