‘We should have done a better job’ – Team Principal Mekies admits RB ‘not happy’ with how Ricciardo exit was handled

RB Team Principal Laurent Mekies has admitted that the team are “not happy” with how Daniel Ricciardo’s departure from the squad was handled, with the Australian sidelined in favour of Liam Lawson for the remainder of the 2024 season following the Singapore Grand Prix.

Rumours swirled in Singapore that the race could be Ricciardo’s last in F1, with Red Bull management understood to have been keen to sub New Zealander Liam Lawson into RB to evaluate him for a permanent drive for 2025.

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However, with no official announcement of Ricciardo’s departure coming until days after the Singapore race, the Australian failed to be given an official send-off – with Mekies admitting, when speaking to the media at the United States Grand Prix three weeks on – that the team hadn’t managed the situation as well as they could have.

“We are not happy with ultimately how we handled it, and of course we are very conscious that we could, and we should, have done a better job at that,” said Mekies.

“Now, Daniel and us, we were talking on a very regular basis, and then we went into that weekend knowing both of us what the situation was. For a number of reasons we decided to go into [Singapore] trying to keep it [not] public and it proved very, very quickly in the weekend that unfortunately it was not the right decision.

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“Certainly we would do things differently if we had to do it again,” added Mekies. “Now, I’d like to think that from what we saw in Singapore, from the reaction of the fans, from the reaction of the paddock, it was unbelievable how in one way or another, all these streams of love, all these streams of support did arrive nonetheless, even if it was not official, even if it was not the most classic send-off.

“We felt the fans found a way, and we all love Daniel, and he has proven there that he is bigger than Formula 1.”

Mekies will now focus on getting Lawson up to speed for the remaining six races of the year – with the New Zealander having already contested five race weekends for the squad back in 2023, as a replacement for the injured Ricciardo – with Mekies saying he was pleased with how Lawson had performed so far after his call-up.

“He has been doing a very good job,” said Mekies. “He has been waiting for this moment for a very long time now – he’s been sitting with us in the office since Race 1. It’s a very long time for drivers when you don’t have another racing programme, just to come to the racetrack and see all the other guys going racing.

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“He has been preparing himself, he has been trying to get all the possible learnings from all the technical meetings, from all the exchanges between Daniel, Yuki [Tsunoda] and the engineers. He jumped in the car this morning [in FP1], he did a very good job straight away.

“I don’t want to say that we were expecting it, but obviously we knew from last year, we knew from what he has shown also in testing that he would be ready and he has shown he’s certainly ready to take on the fight.”