Ricciardo highlights 'big boy decisions' being made at RB

Daniel Ricciardo believes the new look, "different" feel RB team is making "big boy decisions" under the leadership of Laurent Mekies and Peter Bayer.

The Australian feels the risks being taken and the targets being set show the Faenza-based squad "isn't a junior team anymore."

Red Bull purchased the Italian outfit in 2005, turning Minardi into Toro Rosso for the following F1 season with the purpose of it being a second team to the main Red Bull operation.

With Franz Tost at the helm, Toro Rosso provided a proving ground and springboard for a host of Red Bull drivers, including world champions Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen - and Ricciardo.

As a then-Red Bull junior, the 35-year-old began his F1 career in 2011 when he was loaned to Hispania (HRT). Two full seasons at Toro Rosso followed before he was called up alongside Vettel for the 2014 season.

Now back with the twice-rebranded Faenza squad, the outfit has moved on from the days of Tost, who remained in charge through the transition to AlphaTauri and until the end of 2023.

Mekies was installed as team principal only a few months after Bayer's appointment as CEO in June of that year and Ricciardo contends it is a changed environment.

"It does feel different, and I think it's easy to kind of rebrand it and say we’ve got a new look and with this and that, but your actions have to follow," he told media including RacingNews365.

"And I think Laurent [Mekies], Peter [Bayer], Alan [Permane], a lot of guys that have come in have done that. 

"It's not that what was happening in the past with Franz [Tost] wasn't the right thing, but a change sometimes is good. You bring in new ideas. They've all spent time in other teams, organisations."

The transition from AlphaTauri to RB was done, in part, to signal a change in direction and a departure from the junior team convention.

Ricciardo is clear in his view that the path the new identity is taking is the right one, highlighting a new approach to risk appetite and the high bars being set internally.

The eight-time grand prix winner admits that the change in course brings him comfort and that given his age, he would likely feel "out of place" if the team was still merely a Red Bull junior operation.

"It's just a new way of looking at things," he added. "I think that in itself and their intentions and the way they go about it has made people kind of stand up and say, alright, this isn't a junior team anymore.

"We're making big boy decisions and we're taking risks and we're setting targets - and high targets - and ones that we realistically think that we can attain.

"So, it's cool. It's cool to see it. I'm probably too, in a way, like honest in myself that if it felt like a junior team still, I wouldn't feel comfortable here.

"I'm 35 now. So, I think I would feel a bit out of place. And I certainly don't. So I think that's also a good way to probably comprehend it."