The Red Bull family has been heavily criticized for its handling of Daniel Ricciardo’s, most likely, final race in Formula 1.
Even Max Verstappen said he would have liked to see a proper goodbye in Singapore for the Australian.
So the angry question was asked in Austin to Laurent Mekies, the director of the RB F1 team: Ricciardo knew it was his last race, RB F1 knew it was his last race, the media knew too. So why?
Why did he have to pretend and act like no decision had been made?
“The answer is that yes, it was frustrating and yes, you are right, it was not ideal to spend the weekend that way, first of all for him, professionally and personally, and for the whole team around him.”
“Yes, Daniel knew about it. We had discussions before the weekend. For many different reasons, we chose together to go into this weekend without announcing it. And from that point on, we had to deal with it.”
“It’s a decision that, in hindsight, we may or may not make differently. But it’s something that we were all prepared to go through as well, the team and the drivers.”
“Somehow we all found a way to express how much the sport and the fans love Daniel. So I don’t know if it would have been better or worse, certainly different, more traditional, but I can hope to say that the love and empathy we felt during this weekend was something exceptional and that it shows that he is bigger than an F1 driver, that he is bigger than F1.”
Belgium
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