"I think he's going be on the podium" - Daniel Ricciardo backed to impress this season by F1 pundit

F1 pundit Ted Kravitz has predicted Daniel Ricciardo will impress this season, and even score a podium for the Racing Bulls.

Ricciardo is going to be driving for the Red Bull sister team this season alongside Yuki Tsunoda. The battle between the two drivers is expected to be a shootout for who gets the nod to earn a promotion - replacing Sergio Perez at Red Bull.

For Daniel Ricciardo, this is supposedly the primary motive behind driving for Racing Bulls. The driver was sitting on the sidelines last season when the opportunity to get back into F1 came along.

Ricciardo also had a very impressive race in Mexico last season, which has instilled confidence in a lot of his backers. Having said that, there are still questions over his underwhelming stint at McLaren.

When questioned about how Daniel Ricciardo would fare in 2024 during a Sky Sports Q&A session, Ted Kravitz boldly picked the Australian to score a podium this season. He said:

"Firstly, I think he's going to have a very good season. I think he's going to be on the podium at least once in that RB. I think he's going to score a lot of points and help move that team forward. They've got a lot of big technical signings - Tim Goss, a very experienced technical guy, and a lot of people have joined from other teams, including Red Bull."

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Daniel Ricciardo the primary contender to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull, according to Kravitz

Kravitz also feels that Daniel Ricciardo is the leading contender to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull. While mentioning Carlos Sainz too, Kravitz said he was leaning towards the more affable and malleable Ricciardo.

He said (via Sky Sports):

"And as for replacing Perez, Daniel is still, I think, the number one candidate to replace Perez, now that they can't get Lando and Lewis has gone elsewhere, it’s really between Ricciardo and Sainz."

Kravitz added:

"I just think Ricciardo would be a little bit better for inter-team morale, purely because it didn’t end particularly well when Sainz and Verstappen were team-mates. But they’re both older and they’ve both moved on a lot from the Toro Rosso days, so maybe it might work. But I still think somewhere deep in Red Bull, the plan is for Danny Ric to replace Checo in 2025."