Is Ricciardo contradicting Helmut Marko? 'VCARB is no longer a junior team'

After Nyck de Vries was ejected from the car by the then Alphatauri, Ricciardo returned to the car after spending six months as a reserve driver for Red Bull. But while youngsters like Liam Lawson, Isack Hadjar and Arvid Lindblad are coming out in the junior programme for Red Bull, VCARB seems to be going against Dr Marko's statements.

What does Ricciardo have to say about this?

Ahead of the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps, Ricciardo addressed the suggestion of whether VCARB is still a junior team. A lot has changed at the team recently such as the departure of team boss Franz Tost. "I does feel different. I think it's easy to kind of rebrand it and say we’ve got a new look but your actions have to follow. Laurent, Peter, Alan, a lot of guys that have come in and done that. It's not that what was happening in the past with Franz [Tost]. A change sometimes is good," Ricciardo revealed.

Will VCARB still function as Red Bull's sister team?

So there has been a lot of change going on at VCARB. It looks like the team is becoming more independent. Ricciardo had the following to say about this. "It's just a new way of looking at things. 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 high targets that we realistically think we can attain," the Australian said.

"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," Ricciardo added.