RB Boss Hints Ricciardo Situation Unfair In Singapore

The boss of Red Bull’s second F1 team, RB, admits the “communication” strategy surrounding Daniel Ricciardo in Singapore was perhaps not top-notch.

Even before the race weekend, rumours were firming up that the 35-year-old Australian would be driving his last-ever grand prix in Singapore.

He completed the event with tears in his eyes as he faced the media, acknowledging that while the news is not yet official, his Formula 1 adventure is indeed probably now over.

“We already said that he would talk about the performance of the drivers after Singapore,” Laurent Mekies, the team boss at RB, said afterwards.

Mekies arrived at the Faenza based team this year, from Ferrari.

“There is nothing wrong with reviewing the performance of our drivers every few races,” the Frenchman added, “but I think that maybe too much was done in the public eye about this. Our communication.

“We already did it in the first part of the season – we did it just before the summer break with quite a bit of fanfare, and I think at one point we said we’d be looking at it again after Singapore. So that’s part of the game,” Mekies continued.

“But sometimes we can clearly see that maybe it means a bit too much pressure for the competitors – above all for Daniel in this case,” he said.

“I’m thinking about Daniel first and foremost because he’s had a lot of that this season. Sometimes he had quiet races, but sometimes they were very difficult, and this one clearly belongs to the latter category.

“Of course, these guys are elite athletes and they know how to deal with this kind of thing. But sometimes it’s a bit unnecessary,” Mekies added.

“If we look at it as a whole, no matter how much we want to think that it doesn’t distract, it always takes a little energy out of a person. Daniel was still super fast all weekend, but when everything is so tight, when a tenth here, a tenth there matters so much, we can’t forget the particular difficult conditions he’s had this weekend.”