EXCLUSIVE: Ricciardo faces major Red Bull risk as F1 opportunities dwindle

Daniel Ricciardo has been told he faces a big Formula 1 gamble if he makes the move to Red Bull ahead of the 2025 season.

The Australian star has been on a shortlist of candidates to potentially replace Sergio Perez at the current world champions next season where he could be returning and reuniting a team-mate partnership with Max Verstappen following his 2018 exit from the team.

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The 35-year-old re-joined AlphaTauri (now RB) midway through last season and hoped a full season with Red Bull's secondary team would give him the springboard back to Christian Horner's outfit.

However, the eight-times grand prix winner has struggled for form alongside Yuki Tsunoda this season and his F1 future remains opaque, with Red Bull poised to announce a major update to their 2025 plans after the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.

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While a switch to Red Bull to replace Sergio Perez has not been ruled out, former McLaren star Mark Blundell believes that such a move would be a huge risk to Ricciardo's F1 career as it would limit his options should he fail to beat three-time world champion Verstappen.

"Ricciardo could come alongside Max," Blundell exclusively told GPFans on behalf of freebets.com.

"But if he does, he only has one option, and that option is he has to beat Max, because if he doesn't, he's kind of then signed himself off any future going forward.

"So I think you know from that regard, it's quite a big play if they put him in and he feels that he's going to just be the wingman, then okay, but I'm not sure that understanding would be there with him.

"I'm pretty sure that, knowing how he is, he'd want to be going out there to win and do the best job he can. But as I say again, if you don't beat Max, you've kind of signed off. You know, [there are] not really going to be many opportunities going to be left. He can't go back to the secondary team again inside the family, because he's already done that."

Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez rival hot seat

Ricciardo though faces a huge four-way battle to land the second seat alongside Verstappen along with the Dutchman's existing team-mate Sergio Perez, Tsunoda and rising star Liam Lawson.

Lawson had impressed while replacing the injured Ricciardo during the second half of last season and is thought to have been guaranteed a place on the grid with one of Red Bull's teams next season.

Blundell, who took three podiums during his F1 career, believes the 'young blood' of Lawson could make a great option for the senior team given the struggles of Perez this term.

Blundell added: "Perez is there because I think in seasons gone by he's been a great wingman and done a good job - he hasn't quite developed over the course of this season to be in the same sort of way of doing that role. So I think that's where the question marks come from.

"But at that point as well, he's a big star in South America and he has big corporate sponsorships that come alongside him that are beneficial to the team as well from a fiscal standpoint. So that's going to be a balancing act of what comes in on the balance sheet and what goes out on the track in terms of results.

"Do they need now some young blood to go alongside Max, who's still young, but got huge experience already? That's a possibility. So somebody like Lawson could be a great candidate for that. But as I say I think probably on their side, the big play is going to be how they get back to being a grand prix winning team."

Mark Blundell was speaking courtesy of Freebets.com the home of betting sites

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