Ricciardo entered the 2024 campaign having recovered from his hand injury with the Aussie targeting Sergio Perez’s Red Bull seat. However, after being shown up by team-mate Tsunoda in each of the four races so far, he now faces a battle to retain his drive for the remainder of the year.

Waiting to replace the eight-time Grand Prix winner is Lawson, who demonstrated impressive pace during his five stand-in appearances for the team in 2023. Many expected the 22-year-old to be driving in F1 in 2024, but he has instead been restricted to test and reserve duties for both Red Bull and VCARB.

Speaking to Kleine Zeitung about Ricciardo’s future and the possibility of a mid-season swap, Marko explained: “With Liam Lawson as a reserve driver, we obviously have a strong driver in the team who is contractually entitled to drive for another team if he doesn’t get a cockpit with us in 2025.

“In this respect, it would of course be exciting for us if we could see him in Formula One this year to get an even clearer picture. But it’s a complex issue, so we’ll have to see how things progress.”

Marko also assessed Ricciardo’s chances of fighting for the Red Bull seat, adding: “The expectation was that he had to be clearly faster than Yuki if he wanted to have any hope of getting a seat at Red Bull. That hasn’t been the case so far, even if, as I said, it was close. We’ll see how that develops.”

While Ricciardo is now looking over his shoulder at the threat of Lawson, the experienced Aussie has denied the existence of an ultimatum from the Red Bull higher-ups. “No, there isn’t,” he replied when asked about fears of being ousted from VCARB mid-season.

“Anything can happen so I’m also not naive but I haven’t had any indication of that. Again, it probably goes back to a little bit of maybe what I did in the past, but I think they know even last year I showed the signs of speed and everything that yeah, maybe I didn’t always show with McLaren.”