Daniel Ricciardo comments on Adrian Newey leaving Red Bull after 19 years

Daniel Ricciardo has claimed that Red Bull could still win in the sport despite Adrian Newey's exit from the Austrian outfit.

The Milton-Keynes-based team announced that its CTO would be leaving them in early 2025 and would stop his F1 duties immediately to focus on his hypercar commitments. The reigning world champions have won every championship and race with his designed cars and are currently in their second dominant period in the last 15 years.

While speaking with Sky Sports, Daniel Ricciardo highlighted the significance of Adrian Newey's exit from Red Bull and reflected on whether the team could succeed without him. He said:

"I wanna say yes and I do believe so but that by no means diminishing Adrian's present and what he's done. I saw the team and Christian put together some really nice words and they were accurate.

"He's been such a fundamental part of that team. Look everyone goes through change and he's been there a really long time and I guess it's now a new challenge for him that he's looking for."

Daniel Ricciardo chimes in on facing early-season criticism

The start of the 2024 season hasn't gone quite as Daniel Ricciardo would have envisioned as he has been comprehensively outperformed by his RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Speaking with ESPN, the Aussie reflected on the criticism he's faced thus far in the first five races and said:

"I'm sure a lot of people, my fans, F1 fans, whoever, have been saying 'f---ing hell Daniel, pull your finger out, what the f--- are you doing?' That's just part of this whole thing. I'm sure for a lot of them it comes out of a place of them caring and wanting me to do good.

"And then for some, they just have a negative opinion they won't change. I tend not to read stuff about me. I'm generally not a big reader, but inevitably you come across stuff. But it's one of those things. I perform at a few races and all of a sudden it's 'Daniel's back' or 'Daniel's in contention for this, or that.'"

Daniel Ricciardo showed some signs of progress in China as he was ahead of Tsunoda for the entire weekend and on the verge of points before Lance Stroll collided with the back of his car.