Ricciardo seeking a string of strong results to save his F1 career

Credit to Ricciardo for keeping the faith amid increasing criticism about his inability to beat Yuki Tsunoda in Red Bull's junior team on a regular basis. With Liam Lawson waiting in the wings, talk is it is the New Zealander not the Australian who will suit up for VCARB for the Dutch Grand Prix after the summer recess.

In an exclusive interview with GRANDPRIX247 roving correspondent Nasir Hameed, Marko hinted at such a possibility when discussing the driver situation at VCARB: “First we have to see. Lawson [tested] at Silverstone on Thursday. So two more races and there will be more outings with Lawson."

Ricciardo is under no illusions of what his RBR paymasters expect: “I also know what’s required and I’m finally getting a little bit of momentum. Probably what I envisioned I should have maybe had all season so far, it was a little bit tougher to get that going. But now, try to keep it going. I feel quite good in the car.”

One of Ricciardo's competitors is 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve who questioned why the 35-year-old Australian was still on the grid. At first, Dan retorted that the Canadian had maybe received too many knocks on the head playing ice hockey.

But in an interview with F1.com, Ricciardo's stance appears to have become more philosophical: "It feels like when we have a media briefing and they’re like, ‘Yeah, a few people are saying things about you’, I tend to have a decent weekend! Maybe some of it’s good.”

“It’s probably the thing I was certainly lacking for most of the season so far, was to string a few decent results together,” lamented Ricciardo, no doubt aware of the 2023 F1 Standings.

Although VCARB teammate Tsunoda is P12 in the standings after a dozen rounds and Ricciardo P13, the numbers show that the 24-year-old Japanese driver has 20 points to the older driver's 11.

As for his British Grand Prix, Ricciardo reflected in the team report: “It was a mixed conditions race which was exciting; ultimately grabbing some opportunities, but unfortunately, we were not competitive. It was one of those days where we struggled more than we should have.

"We’ll try to get into it and figure out why. In the last three weekends, I think we have lost out a little bit on the latest upgrades battle compared to some of our competitors in the midfield, so we've got some work to do looking at the next races.

"It's good now to have a week off for all of us to reset and come back to Budapest which is a completely different circuit," added Ricciardo.

VCARB technical director, Jody Egginton also had an excuse for his driver: On Daniel’s side of the garage, race day was not so straightforward. An issue was identified with his car before the race and resulted in a significant amount of work to get his car turned around for the race.

"In terms of overall performance, the midfield remains very tight, and the focus remains on delivering aero updates to the car to move the package forward and give ourselves the best possible chance of scoring points," ventured Egginton.

And points, many of them and more than Tsunoda is what the Aussie needs to keep Lawson out of the car when they are unleashed for FP1 at Zandvoort when the Dutch GP fires up the final stanza of the season.

A year down the road from when Ricciardo pranged and hurt his wrist Lawson became an instant F1 star, and add pressure to the under-pressure veteran.