Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 adventure may be coming to a definitive end.
RB, Red Bull’s junior outfit, announced in Montreal that the energy drink company has taken up its contract ’option’ on Yuki Tsunoda for the 2025 season.
"For the first time in my career, I was in a situation where other teams were also interested," Tsunoda, 24, said. "But of course Red Bull always had priority."
There was no mention of Ricciardo, who according to 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has been living off his "image" rather than his pace for several years now.
In response, 34-year-old Australian Ricciardo said he wonders if Villeneuve "hit his head too often", adding that the Canadian should "eat sh*t".
"I didn’t attack him," Villeneuve hit back, according to Le Journal de Montreal. "I said what the majority of people see."
Indeed, even Dr Helmut Marko - Red Bull’s influential F1 consultant - admitted in Montreal that Ricciardo has been "significantly behind Tsunoda" in 2024.
"Ricciardo had one good race, but the rest are not impressive so far," he added. "In general, Racing Bulls is still a junior team," the 81-year-old warned. "So we have to think about what will happen in the future.
"There is (Liam) Lawson, of course, in the front row, but we also have (Isack) Hadjar in Formula 2 and also (Ayumu) Iwasa, in Super Formula, who is doing well."
Meanwhile, the rumour mill in Montreal is suggesting that Oliver Bearman has now signed a contract to replace Nico Hulkenberg at Haas next year.
As for the out-of-contract Kevin Magnussen, Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu on Friday was openly critical of the Dane’s crash with Sergio Perez last time out in Monaco.
"There was a point where everything was under his control, where he could have made a decision to back off, which he didn’t. So we spoke about all this completely openly," said Komatsu.
"He did it in Imola, so he needs to deliver a good, clean race weekend here."
The current favourite to replace Magnussen next year is Esteban Ocon.