{"id":379767,"date":"2024-03-26T22:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=379767"},"modified":"2024-03-27T02:03:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T02:03:51","slug":"why-rivals-win-could-be-bitter-blow-to-ricciardo-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=379767","title":{"rendered":"Why rival's win could be bitter blow to Ricciardo future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull<\/a> team principal Christian Horner<\/a> won't rule out signing Carlos Sainz<\/a> in the wake of his barnstorming Australian Grand Prix<\/a> win.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard dominated the third race of the Formula 1<\/a> season in Melbourne, passing Red Bull's Max Verstappen<\/a> on lap two just as the Dutch driver struck race-ending brake dramas.<\/p>\n

Even without those woes, Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez<\/a> said Sainz would have "absolutely" won the race.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Stop looking': Indigenous icon questions Latrell act<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Former club doctor drops drugs bombshell on AFL<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Horror NRL injury list hits home after bizarre barbecue accident<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A win for Sainz so early in the season is a major milestone made even more important by the fact he stood atop the podium before even his Ferrari<\/a> teammate Charles Leclerc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After all, the Monegasque is considered the number one driver at the Scuderia.<\/p>\n

It stands to reason that opportunities exist for Sainz at two of the top teams in F1.<\/p>\n

Here are the possible scenarios.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Ferrari<\/p>\n

Sainz and Red Bull<\/h2>\n

Red Bull has something of a tug-of-war between Perez and its RB "juniors" Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It could be that none of those three end up at Red Bull in 2025 with Sainz now looming as a serious contender to partner Verstappen.<\/p>\n

"I think we want to field the best pairing that we can in Red Bull Racing and sometimes you've got to look outside the pool as well," Horner told Motorsport.com after the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.<\/p>\n

"You've had a very fast, unemployed driver win today's race. So the market is reasonably fluid with certain drivers."<\/p>\n

Asked whether he would consider bringing Sainz on board, Horner replied: "Look, based on a performance like that you couldn't rule any possibility out, so I think you just want to take the time (to decide).<\/p>\n

"Obviously, Checo (Sergio Perez) was compromised today. He's had a great start to the season too, so we're not in any desperate rush. Carlos is the only driver that's beaten Red Bull in the last (year), so he appears to be our nemesis."<\/p>\n

Sainz has a pre-existing relationship with Red Bull, having been a Toro Rosso driver (now RB) from 2015 to 2017 before being released to join the factory Renault team (now Alpine).<\/p>\n

\"Mercedes<\/p>\n

Sainz and Mercedes<\/h2>\n

Sainz is unemployed beyond 2024, but it's hard to imagine a situation in 2025 where the three-time grand prix winner isn't on the grid.<\/p>\n

The other option outside of Red Bull, and perhaps a more obvious one, is Mercedes.<\/p>\n

With seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton taking Sainz's spot at Ferrari, it could be a simple swap for the Silver Arrows.<\/p>\n

"It's a mad world, the only driver who has beaten a Red Bull since November 2022 is out of a job for next year," said ex-grand prix driver Karun Chandok on Sky Sports F1's coverage.<\/p>\n

"It was a superb performance. He had the measure of Charles since the start of qualifying. He executes a perfect race.<\/p>\n

"If you were Mercedes looking at it? You'd say 'We have lost an established star, we're coming into the final year of the regulations, we need an experienced driver who has shown that he cope with the pressure of winning grands prix'. There's one, right here. I think he'd be a great fit alongside George Russell at Mercedes."<\/p>\n

\"Andrea<\/p>\n

Mercedes hasn't made much noise about who it will replace Hamilton with outside of F2 young gun Andrea Kimi Antonelli, but in the six races this season the Italian hasn't exactly blown the competition out of the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He's yet to stand on the podium and lies ninth in the drivers' championship. F1 prodigies like Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc were all race winners on debut.<\/p>\n

Unless there's an uptick in performance, Mercedes might find themselves taking a serious look at Sainz.<\/p>\n

As it stands, there are few other obvious front-running options \u2013 even among those off-contract.<\/p>\n

The evergreen two-time champion Fernando Alonso has flirted with the idea of joining Mercedes, although that could just be a bid to drive up his stocks in the driver market.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Where does Ricciardo land?<\/h2>\n

Ricciardo has yet to make his mark in 2024.<\/p>\n

He's 0-3 in qualifying against his teammate Tsunoda and 1-2 against the Japanese driver in races.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda has points but often the best measure of a driver is outright speed \u2014 and qualifying would suggest the 23-year-old has that in spades over Ricciardo.<\/p>\n

The discourse of late has shifted from whether the Perth product is promoted to Red Bull next year to whether he can keep his place at RB this year.<\/p>\n

Rumours emanated out of the Australian Grand Prix from Auto Action and the New Zealand Herald that Ricciardo has just two races to prove he's worth keeping. Speedcafe, meanwhile, reports Ricciardo is safe.<\/p>\n

There is nothing certain about RB and its driver line-up short- or long-term. However, history shows rumours of drivers being dropped mid-season often hold some weight \u2013 just ask Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, or Nyck De Vries; all victims of the Red Bull driver merry-go-round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner won't rule out signing Carlos Sainz in the wake of his barnstorming Australian Grand Prix win. The Spaniard dominated […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":379769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379767"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379774,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379767\/revisions\/379774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/379769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}