RB group principal Laurent Mekies believes Pink Bull’s openness about when it would evaluate its driver performances may result in an excessive amount of strain throughout a race weekend.
Daniel Ricciardo’s future was the topic of intense scrutiny in the course of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, with the Australian’s demeanor evolving from anticipating a choice on 2025 to believing he had probably pushed his ultimate race in Formulation 1 by Sunday night time. A part of the explanation for the main target was Pink Bull confirming it could evaluate the performances of its drivers in each groups after Singapore – one thing it has additionally achieved earlier within the 12 months – however Mekies sees a possible draw back to that method.
“There’s nothing improper with reviewing your drivers’ efficiency each few races, and I feel we’ve maybe been too public about it,” Mekies informed SiriusXM. “We now have achieved it within the first a part of the season, we’ve achieved it fairly famously simply earlier than the summer season break, I suppose at some stage we’ve mentioned we’ll see after Singapore as properly to debate!
“So it’s a part of the sport. Definitely generally you’ll be able to see it’s in all probability going a bit too far when it comes to strain, above all for Daniel in that case.
“I feel the primary thought is for Daniel, as a result of he has had numerous that this season. Some causes it’s been quiet, some races it’s been very troublesome, that is for positive one of many very troublesome races. In fact, these guys are excessive stage athletes and so they know cope with it however generally it’s a bit pointless.”
Talking earlier than Ricciardo completed 18th with the quickest lap in Singapore, Mekies says the main target may also place numerous consideration on a driver that may have an effect on outcomes when there margins are so small throughout the midfield.
“If you happen to take a look at the worldwide image, for positive as a lot as we want to assume it’s not a distraction, it’s all the time taking slightly little bit of power out of you. And when every little thing is so tight, and Daniel was super-fast this weekend during, he didn’t get a really perfect [qualifying] session with the mushy, and when every little thing issues a tenth right here and a tenth there, for positive we can not overlook concerning the significantly troublesome context he had this weekend.”
