Formula 1: F1 commentator David Croft fears Daniel Ricciardo will not be on the Formula 1 grid in 2025

As speculation swirls around Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 future, F1 commentator David Croft has weighed on the Australian’s situation and why it should never have come to this.

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN – SEPTEMBER 15: Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and Visa Cash App RB looks on, on the grid during the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan at Baku City Circuit on September 15, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

Formula 1 commentator David Croft predicts Daniel Ricciardo will not be on the F1 grid next year, saying he has not done enough to justify his seat and questioned why his career ever had to end up at these crossroads.

As speculation mounts that Ricciardo could lose his RB seat for next year, the voice of F1 on Sky Sports said the Australian was in a “hero to zero” situation over his place on the grid for 2025 and argued he had so far not done enough to justify why he should keep it.

Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson is waiting in the wings for an F1 promotion and the team’s motorsport adviser Helmut Marko has been a strong supporter of the Kiwi young gun.

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Daniel Ricciardo’s future remains in the air after a rollercoaster season. Picture: Getty

Ricciardo, 35, remains the only driver in the Red Bull F1 family without a contract for next season after Perez and Yuki Tsunoda were recontracted this year.

Marko suggested at last week’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix a decision on who will be in RB’s second set could be announced after the Singapore Grand Prix.

While the pressure has also been on the performances of Perez, Croft reasoned Ricciardo had been unable to outperform his teammate Tsunoda to threaten the Mexican’s position.

Pressure has been mounting on Ricciardo. Picture: Getty

Ricciardo sits 14th in the driver standings on 12 points, behind 12th-placed Tsunoda on 22.

Croft said it didn’t bode well for the eight-time Grand Prix winner’s future.

“My heart says I really hope (Ricciardo will be on the grid), my head says I don’t think so,” Croft said.

“I think Daniel is in a position where he either takes the seat from Sergio Perez, or he hasn’t got a seat at all and that is the ultimate hero to zero, isn’t it, really?

“Is he doing enough to get that seat from Sergio Perez? Red Bull will look at that and say ‘You are not consistently beating Yuki Tsunoda, we don’t think Tsunoda is good enough for the Red Bull seat, so if you are not consistently beating the guy we don’t think is good enough, why are you suddenly good enough?’.

“When I say Red Bull, I think that is Helmut Marko, not Christian Horner, who I think would put him in there.

“But ideally Red Bull would like to keep Sergio Perez because it’s a settled team and he is everything they want that driver to be. But Perez isn’t scoring enough points at the moment for Red Bull to be winning a constructors’ championship because McLaren are currently leading the constructors championship, so that puts Perez at a bit of jeopardy.

Daniel Ricciardo is under pressure to hold onto his RB seat. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

“Does that mean Liam Lawson can be brought in and prompted straight up to the seat, potentially, and I don’t think that there is a downside to that.

“But does that mean then that Danny Ric holds on to his RB seat? I think sentimental reasons, yes, but this is Red Bull and they don’t do sentiment quite as well as well as they do winning races.

“So that is a longwinded way of saying, I don’t think he will be (on the grid in 2025), sadly.”

Ricciardo’s best result this year was eighth at the Canadian Grand Prix in June and he has only managed three top-10 finishes.

The Perth-born racer has failed to relive the success of his five-year stint at Red Bull where he claimed all but one of his Grand Prix wins and was twice third in the drivers’ championship before leaving the team at the end of 2018.

Ricciardo steers his car during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Picture: AFP

He then moved onto underwhelming two-year stints at Renault and McLaren where he was axed with a year to run on his contract and replaced by Aussie young gun Oscar Piastri.

After then being signed as Red Bull’s third driver for 2023, he was thrown a career lifeline in a seat with the Red Bull junior team midway through last season

Croft questioned why he ever walked from Red Bull in the first place.

“It should not have been like this,” Croft said.

“Had he not left Red Bull it wouldn’t have been like this and that is the really frustrating thing with Danny Ric.

“If he hadn’t left Red Bull, he and Max (Verstappen) could have been very happy teammates for many years to come and still carrying on beyond the end of this year.

“Does he regret it? Only he can answer that one and I wouldn’t want to answer it for him.”

Originally published as Formula 1: F1 commentator David Croft fears Daniel Ricciardo will not be on the Formula 1 grid in 2025