RB group principal Laurent Mekies believes Crimson Bull’s openness about when it should evaluate its driver performances may result in an excessive amount of strain throughout a race weekend.
Daniel Ricciardo’s future was the topic of intense scrutiny through the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, with the Australian’s demeanor evolving from anticipating a call on 2025 to believing he had probably pushed his closing race in Formulation 1 by Sunday evening. A part of the rationale for the main target was Crimson Bull confirming it might evaluate the performances of its drivers in each groups after Singapore – one thing it has additionally performed earlier within the yr – however Mekies sees a possible draw back to that strategy.
“There’s nothing fallacious with reviewing your drivers’ efficiency each few races, and I feel now we have maybe been too public about it,” Mekies instructed SiriusXM. “Now we have performed it within the first a part of the season, now we have performed it fairly famously simply earlier than the summer time break, I suppose at some stage now we have stated we are going to see after Singapore as properly to debate!
“So it’s a part of the sport. Actually typically you’ll be able to see it’s in all probability going a bit too far by way of strain, above all for Daniel in that case.
“I feel the primary thought is for Daniel, as a result of he has had numerous that this season. Some causes it’s been quiet, some races it’s been very troublesome, that is for certain one of many very troublesome races. In fact, these guys are excessive stage athletes and so they know the way to cope with it however typically it’s a bit pointless.”
Talking earlier than Ricciardo completed 18th with the quickest lap in Singapore, Mekies says the main target also can place numerous consideration on a driver that may have an effect on outcomes when there margins are so small inside the midfield.
“In case you have a look at the worldwide image, for certain as a lot as we wish to assume it’s not a distraction, it’s all the time taking slightly little bit of power out of you. And when every little thing is so tight, and Daniel was super-fast this weekend all over, he didn’t get a really perfect [qualifying] session with the gentle, and when every little thing issues a tenth right here and a tenth there, for certain we can’t neglect concerning the notably troublesome context he had this weekend.”
