The future of Daniel Ricciardo in Formula 1 seems to be reaching its conclusion.
RB, the junior team of Red Bull, confirmed during the grand prix weekend in Montreal that it has exercised its contract option on Yuki Tsunoda for the 2025 season. "For the first time in my career, I was in a situation where other teams were also interested," Tsunoda, aged 24, commented. "But of course Red Bull always had priority."
Notably, Ricciardo was not mentioned, and according to the 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, he has been relying on his "image" more than his speed for some time.
In a sharp retort, the 34-year-old Australian suggested that Villeneuve "hit his head too often" and that he should "eat sh*t."
"I didn't attack him," Villeneuve responded in the Le Journal de Montreal. "I said what the majority of people see."
Indeed, Dr. Helmut Marko, a key figure at Red Bull, also acknowledged in Montreal that Ricciardo is "significantly behind Tsunoda" in 2024 performance. "Ricciardo had one good race, but the rest are not impressive so far," he noted.
"In general, Racing Bulls is still a junior team," the 81-year-old cautioned. "So we have to think about what will happen in the future. There is (Liam) Lawson, of course, in the front row, but we also have (Isack) Hadjar in Formula 2 and also (Ayumu) Iwasa, in Super Formula, who is doing well."
Elsewhere in Montreal, there's buzz that Oliver Bearman has signed a deal to take over Nico Hulkenberg's seat at Haas next season.
Regarding Kevin Magnussen, whose contract is ending, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu openly criticized the Dane's recent crash with Sergio Perez in Monaco.
"There was a point where everything was under his control, where he could have made a decision to back off, which he didn't. So we spoke about all this completely openly," Komatsu explained.
"He did it in Imola, so he needs to deliver a good, clean race weekend here."
Esteban Ocon is currently the leading candidate to replace Magnussen next year.
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