How British GP shocker crushed Ricciardo bid to replace Perez

Daniel Ricciardo was on the verge of replacing Sergio Perez at Red Bull before a poor performance in the British GP scuppered his chance, the latest season of Drive to Survive has revealed.

As Perez's alarming slump in form showed no signs of improvement as F1 headed towards the 2024 summer break, Racing Bulls driver Ricciardo was linked as a possible replacement if Red Bull opted to axe the Mexican racer.

Perez endured a tricky weekend at the British GP, spinning out of qualifying at Copse in wet conditions before going onto an equal season-worst result of 17th in the race itself, although he would ultimately survive through the summer break, before the team decided to drop him in favour of Liam Lawson for 2025.

At the British GP, Lawson did not even have a race drive, serving as third driver for both teams, with Ricciardo seeking out Red Bull head of communications Paul Smith for a chat about the situation that could have seen him return to the team he left in 2018 to partner Max Verstappen. 

The transcript below features Christian Horner speaking to mechanics in the garage after Perez's qualifying failure, but going onto the Ricciardo-Smith meeting.

Christian Horner (CH): I'm starting to think there are diminishing returns, this weekend we have to look very carefully at the other drivers. Of the three that we've got, well four, Checo vs Daniel vs Yuki vs Liam. I am a big fan of Daniel, I know he has not been competitive, but we know what he is capable of. I think he can sniff there is a bit of a chance. 

CUT SCENE

Daniel Ricciardo (DR): I just wasn't sure how much they've made aware to the public that Checo is somewhat on the verge.

Paul Smith (PS): Shakes head

PS: What Christian has been saying publicly is that the way it is being approached with Checo is lots of support right, as opposed to: 'We definitely fucking replacing Checo, he is fucked, DR is in, Liam into VCARB...

DR: Happy days 

PS: So for you, Christian, I think is taking the time to see what happens here, he needs success.

DR: Yeah, that is cool. 

This exchange plays into an exclusive interview Ricciardo then gave to RacingNews365 at the following Hungarian GP where he declared he needed to "kick some arse" in the final two races before the summer break. 

Ultimately, he would finish 12th in Hungary with Tsunoda ninth and picked up the final point of his F1 career with a 10th place at Spa.