Daniel Ricciardo is re🍌portedly “protected” by Christian H𒊎orner amid a disappointing season so far.

Ricciardo had the backing ♊of the Red Bull team principal last year mid-season when an impressive test enabled him to ꦉreturn to the F1 grid full-time at sister team AlphaTauri, replacing Nyck de Vries.

Ricciardo entered this year as a major candidate to replace📖 Sergio Perez, whose Red Bull contract will expire this year.

But he has disappointed with RB thi♛s year, and sits 14th in the F1 standings, four places behind teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

The report that Tsunoda is not “changing minds” at Red Bull despite his run of form, which includes scoring points in five of the pa💛st six grands prix.

So although Tsunoda may not be a contender to replace Perez alongside Max Verstappen in 2025, his underperforming teammate Ricciardo still has the same key suppo👍rter.

Ricciardo is 🗹“safe for now” from being axed at RB, and replaced by Liam Lawson, the BBC report.

However, Ricciardo is another cog in the internal problems within Red Bull 🍌that were laid bare after the investigation which cleared Horner after accusations from a colleague.

Helmut Marko, the veteran adviser withiꦿn F1’s dominant team, “would probably like to promote Lawso🍬n” at Ricciardo’s expense.

But Marko “has lost power and influence” in the fallout from the con🍷troversy in♚volving Horner.

Lawson could conceivably find himself in an RB full-time next season, but it would be alongside Ricciardo rather than instead of 🍬the popular Australian.

Tsunoda may look elsewhere as he is 🐻clearly not going to be promoted from RB to Red Bull.