Ricciardo doesn't fear De Vries scenario after new warning from Marko

Although the season is only four F1 races young, Helmut Marko already seems to be applying pressure on Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian needs to improve, and it seems he needs to do it quickly. However, he does not fear an early dismissal. A new chassis should start helping him develop more speed from the Chinese Grand Prix onwards.

Prior to the F1 season, more was expected of Ricciardo. Namely, he wanted to use Visa Cash App RB as a stepping stone for a return to Red Bull Racing. For now, that is not going to happen. He seems to fear for his place at the sister team. Ahead of the weekend, Marko revealed Ricciardo was briefed about needing to be faster than Yuki Tsunoda. If he managed that, then he had a chance at the Red Bull seat. Marko confirmed that has not been the case yet and he would like to see Liam Lawson get a chance.

Ricciardo returned to Formula 1 last year as a replacement for Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman had been forced aside in the middle of the season as he wasn't performing at the desired level. Does Ricciardo fear the same scenario if he does not improve quickly? "No. Anything can happen. I'm also not naive, but I haven't had any indication of that. It probably goes back to a little bit of maybe what I did in the past, but I think they know even last year, I showed the signs of speed and everything that I didn't always show with McLaren. We felt like we got that back out of me. For whatever reason, it hasn't quite been there to its fullest so far this year, but I think they know it's there. And also what we're doing on the sim, they can see that it's there. So we just now got to put it together," Ricciardo said.

New chassis

After four disappointing weekends in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Japan, a new chassis should start to help Ricciardo in the quest for his first points of the season. "Yes," Ricciardo confirmed in China he will use the new chassis. "I've been quite vocal about it because I've been struggling a bit this year. To be clear it was always the plan to have to introduce that chassis here. I don't know if anyone else is yet, but by race five, I was obviously just putting my hand up whenever it's ready, I'll take it. It was the earliest convenience, and I obviously said 'let me try it.' And Yuki is happy with his [chassis]."