Mark Webber has revealed Daniel Ricciardo, the man who replaced him at Red Bull Racing back in 2014, failed to heed his advice before the West Australian’s Formula 1 career nosedived.
Webber won nine F1 races during his time with Red Bull before making way for Ricciardo, with Webber subsequently retiring from the category.
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Ricciardo has won eight F1 races of his own to date, seven with Red Bull and a lone victory with McLaren in 2021.
Now at the advanced racing age of 34, Ricciardo is back in F1 with Red Bull’s feeder team, AlphaTauri, and Webber believes he never should have left the energy drink’s stable.
“I was keen for him to stay in Red Bull,” Webber told ITV. “I think he knows that all those years ago I was trying to talk him into staying.
“But, obviously, he was keen to go to Renault at the time and then he went to McLaren.
“He’s had a year out and now he’s back.
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“The stopwatch never lies, you’re either giving pressure or you’re taking pressure.
“So now he’s back on the grid and obviously, he’s got to step up against (teammate) Yuki (Tsunoda) pretty quickly and hopefully he can perform well.”
Sebastian Vettel, Webber’s Red Bull teammate when the German won four Formula 1 world titles, has also had his say on Ricciardo’s return to the grid.
While he is happy for Ricciardo, another of his former teammates, Vettel concedes he felt the move to axe rookie Nyck De Vries to make way for the Australian was “brutal”.
“I’m very happy for Daniel, very happy,” Vettel said. “I like him, obviously, I raced with him, and I met him at the test when I was shaking down the [1993] McLaren for this weekend. “And I’m very, very happy for him.
“On the other hand, you have to be honest as well. It’s obviously a shame for Nyck, the way it comes to an end. I think he was given a great chance.
“Maybe things didn’t happen for him the way he expected, or people expected. But it’s also a bit harsh when it comes to a very sudden stop like that. It’s brutal.”
The pressure will be on Ricciardo to keep up with Tsunoda, the 23-year-old Japanese driver who has secured AlphaTauri’s only two points thus far in a miserable season for the team.
There is also wild speculation over what the F1 grid may look like in 2024.
Ricciardo has been linked with a return to Red Bull’s main team alongside Max Verstappen.
It has also been reported, however, that Red Bull is looking to replace Sergio Perez with one of the sport’s young guns, Lando Norries (McLaren) or Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).
It will all add up to enormous interest when practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix gets underway this week.
