Openness on driver reviews creating too much pressure – Mekies

RB staff principal Laurent Mekies believes Pink Bull’s openness about when it’s going to 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 throughout the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, with the Australian’s demeanor evolving from anticipating a choice on 2025 to believing he had possible pushed his last race in Components 1 by Sunday night time. A part of the explanation for the main focus was Pink Bull confirming it will evaluate the performances of its drivers in each groups after Singapore – one thing it has additionally completed earlier within the 12 months – however Mekies sees a possible draw back to that strategy.

“There may be nothing mistaken with reviewing your drivers’ efficiency each few races, and I believe now we have maybe been too public about it,” Mekies informed SiriusXM. “We’ve got completed it within the first a part of the season, now we have completed it fairly famously simply earlier than the summer season break, I suppose at some stage now we have stated we are going to see after Singapore as nicely to debate!

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“So it’s a part of the sport. Definitely typically you possibly can see it’s most likely going a bit too far by way of strain, above all for Daniel in that case.

“I believe the primary thought is for Daniel, as a result of he has had a variety of that this season. Some causes it’s been quiet, some races it’s been very tough, that is for positive one of many very tough races. After all, these guys are excessive degree athletes and so they know the best way to cope with it however typically it’s a bit pointless.”

Talking earlier than Ricciardo completed 18th with the quickest lap in Singapore, Mekies says the main focus may also place a variety of consideration on a driver that may have an effect on outcomes when there margins are so small inside the midfield.

“If you happen to have a look at the worldwide image, for positive as a lot as we want to suppose it’s not a distraction, it’s at all times taking a bit of little bit of power out of you. And when every little thing is so tight, and Daniel was super-fast this weekend all through, he didn’t get a super [qualifying] session with the tender, and when every little thing issues a tenth right here and a tenth there, for positive we can not neglect concerning the notably tough context he had this weekend.”