RB team principal Laurent Mekies believes Red Bull’s openness about when it will review its driver performances could lead to too much pressure during a race weekend.
Daniel Ricciardo’s future was the subject of intense scrutiny during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, with the Australian’s demeanor evolving from expecting a decision on 2025 to believing he had likely driven his final race in Formula 1 by Sunday night. Part of the reason for the focus was Red Bull confirming it would review the performances of its drivers in both teams after Singapore – something it has also done earlier in the year – but Mekies sees a potential downside to that approach.
“There is nothing wrong with reviewing your drivers’ performance every few races, and I think we have perhaps been too public about it,” Mekies told SiriusXM. “We have done it in the first part of the season, we have done it quite famously just before the summer break, I guess at some stage we have said we will see after Singapore as well to discuss!
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“So it’s part of the game. Certainly sometimes you can see it’s probably going a bit too far in terms of pressure, above all for Daniel in that case.
“I think the first thought is for Daniel, because he has had a lot of that this season. Some reasons it’s been quiet, some races it’s been very difficult, this is for sure one of the very difficult races. Of course, these guys are high level athletes and they know how to deal with it but sometimes it’s a bit unnecessary.”
Speaking before Ricciardo finished 18th with the fastest lap in Singapore, Mekies says the focus can also place a lot of attention on a driver that can have an impact on results when there margins are so small within the midfield.
“If you look at the global picture, for sure as much as we would like to think it’s not a distraction, it’s always taking a little bit of energy out of you. And when everything is so tight, and Daniel was super-fast this weekend all the way through, he didn’t get an ideal [qualifying] session with the soft, and when everything matters a tenth here and a tenth there, for sure we cannot forget about the particularly difficult context he had this weekend.”