Formula 1 news 2024: Ex-Haas boss Guenther Steiner on Ricciardo’s Red Bull prospects
Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has made a prediction on where Daniel Ricciardo will be in 2025, plus see his surprise call on who should replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.
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Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner rates Daniel Ricciardo as the driver in the “best place” to secure the second seat at Red Bull next year.
He has also weighed in on the Christian Horner “soap opera” and who should replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.
In a wide-ranging interview that also addressed his exit from Haas and his future Formula One plans, Steiner said Ricciardo was in the box seat to make a return to Red Bull alongside world champion Max Verstappen should the team let Sergio Perez go.
Steiner also suggested Verstappen would be his top pick to replace the Ferrari-bound Hamilton at Mercedes, although the Dutchman has a contract with Red Bull until the end of the 2028 season.
After making a return to the F1 grid midway through last year, Ricciardo is fighting for a place at Red Bull with the rebranded RB team.
Ricciardo has made no secret of his ambition to return to the team where he was a seven-time grand prix winner and Steiner felt he had a good chance to make it happen.
“I think there is a chance,” Steiner said. “Sergio’s contract is up and there was a lot of criticism last year about Sergio. I mean. Max is just so superior.
“So I think if Daniel does a good job he has a chance. I think he is the guy in the best place to have a chance to get the seat if Perez doesn’t perform.
“To get that second seat, who is better? He already has a foot in the door with Red Bull. He was there a long time, they know him, he is appreciated there and he is liked there.
“If he performs, he has a big chance to get that seat if Checo Perez doesn’t perform.
“His comeback (last year) was a lot better than when he left McLaren. At McLaren, it just didn’t work. He was not in a good place, I think.
“He came back and he was pretty strong, then he had the broken wrist and all that stuff, so we need to see this year what he can do.”
There is already plenty of intrigue and discussion surrounding driver moves for the 2025 season following Hamilton’s bombshell pre-season announcement he would be moving to Ferrari next year.
Asked for his thoughts on who his top pick would be to replace the seven-time world champion, Steiner was quick to name Verstappen.
Steiner said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff had plenty of time to assess the market before making a call this year.
“My top pick would be Max Verstappen but I think he is not available at the moment,” Steiner said. “It’s difficult to say.
“They also have this young talent (Andrea) Kimi Antonelli, who is driving F2.
“See how he is doing in F2 and maybe he can replicate a Max Verstappen scenario, which came from a lower formula straight into F1.
“Otherwise, the market is quite open. At the end of the season, I think there are 13 drivers out of contract, so see who performs and I think nobody will sign before that seat has gone anywhere.
“Toto is in a good place to have a pick. Toto has three to six months just to watch what is going on, how the people are doing and then take his pick and then the rest of the driver markets will be moving.”
There have been rumblings of discontent in the Verstappen camp at Red Bull following the Horner scandal.
Red Bull team principal Horner was cleared before the opening round of the season of “inappropriate behaviour” towards a female staff member.
However, Verstappen’s father Jos told the Daily Mail after the Bahrain Grand Prix that the team would “explode” and was in “danger of being torn apart” if Horner stayed in the job.
Asked if Red Bull needed to act on Horner to keep the Verstappen camp happy, Steiner said he did not know all the facts but it had become a “soap opera” for the sport.
“This is going on too long now,” Steiner said. “There is always a decision made … but then something comes back with something more on top of it.
“It never seems to be ending this saga, it’s a bit of a soap opera. So hopefully they can find a solution wherever it is just to focus again on the sport more than anything else.”
Steiner said he did not expect the off-track issues to have a negative impact on Red Bull’s performances in the short-term.
“I don’t think in the short-term it (Red Bull) gets destabilised,’’ he said. “I don’t think it will have an effect on the operational level yet.
“Mid to long-term maybe but short-term I think Red Bull Racing is such a well-oiled machine that it will not affect that in the next races.
“Then, as you all know, Max at the moment is just so strong, he cannot get anything wrong, everything goes his way.
“I don’t think we will see any issues in the short-term.”
The colourful Steiner was ousted as Haas team principal in a shock off-season development after 10 years in the role.
He has launched into F1 commentary and will also feature live on stage in “An Evening With Guenther Steiner” in Melbourne before the Australian Grand Prix on March 20.
However, Steiner said he had no plans to return to F1 as a team leader in the near future.
“At the moment, just to go do the same job again somewhere else, I am not really interested,” he said.
“I am not looking to do a (role as) team principal again in the short-term just to get the job in Formula One.
“Let’s see what is happening. I am enjoying it at the moment, I am plenty busy – actually, too busy for an unemployed guy.”
Steiner said he had moved on from his Haas exit but was proud of what he and the team had achieved during his time at the helm.
“I had a different view, a different vision of the future, and I voiced myself all last year and it wasn’t liked,” Steiner said.
“It’s no point to keep on doing something you don’t believe in.
“Most of the 10 years were good.”
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