Daniel Ricciardo not ready to give up his seat to Liam Lawson

RB's Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo Photo: AFP

Australian Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo is ignoring the criticism of his performances so far this season.

Ricciardo has not picked up any points for RB in the three races to date, finishing 12th in the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday.

That has raised the suggestion again that New Zealander Liam Lawson could be in a line for a return to F1 in a permanant role. He is currently the Red Bull reserve driver.

The other RB driver Yuki Tsunoda was seventh in Melbourne and has generally out driven Ricciardo in 2024.

Lawson raced five times for the then named Alpha Tauri team in 2023 while Ricciardo was recovering from a broken hand suffered in a crash.

The 34-year-old Australian feels a turnaround was not far away.

"I think we're just going to keep our eyes on the prize," Ricciado told F1.

"It hasn't been the best three races this season and it's definitely not where I expected to be, but it's certainly not something that we're going to get rattled by, we just have to stay on course and we'll find it."

It has been reported that Red Bull's head of driver development Dr Helmut Marko is putting pressure on Ricciardo to pertform with the suggestion that he could be replaced.

"I wouldn't say there is any panic," Ricciardo said after the Australian GP.

Ricciardo returned to Red Bull's second team last year, replacing Nyck de Vries, who had made a poor start to that season.

After the Australian Grand Prix Red Bull boss Christian Horner backed his former driver to get back on track.

"He's a big boy, he'll pick himself up."

"I think it's still very early in the year to even be thinking about next year."

The next round is in Japan on 7 April.