It was expected Ricciardo would face questions regarding his short-term future after Marko questioned his position at RB in an interview with Austrian publication Kleine Zeitung.
The Red Bull motorsport advisor noted that, since the Australian had failed in his attempts to secure a return to the senior Red Bull team, his position at RB was “no longer valid.”
Ricciardo only learned of the remarks when he arrived in Austria on Thursday morning and quickly dismissed them.
“I’ve become really good at not reading things,” he began.
“I didn’t know about it ‘til I was told when I got here.
“Look, I don’t feel one way or another about it. I still know that the overriding thing in this sport is performance.
Secure your spot today.
“That’s it. That’s what will give me my best chance of staying here. I know it’s not going to be my nice smile or anything else, it’s the on-track stuff.”
Ricciardo’s future has been speculated about a number of times as, thus far in 2024, he’s struggled to regularly match team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
The 34-year-old insists however that there has been no additional pressure or conversations with management about his performance.
“I haven’t heard anything,” he insisted.
“There has been any pressure, ultimatum, nothing like that.
“But I’ve also been in the sport a long time. I know if I’m getting my ass kicked every weekend, at some point someone will be like ‘hey mate, step it up, otherwise…’ But I haven’t had that.
“I’ve had good support from Christian [Horner] but from Laurent [Mekies, RB team principal], from everyone.
“They’re doing what they can obviously, but then at some point, I’m the one in the car and I’ve got to push that throttle a bit harder.”
Ricciardo has shown glimpses of his former self, most recently in Miami when he qualified and finished fifth for the Sprint.
He was only 15th last weekend in Spain, but well ahead of team-mate Tsunoda in an event where RB struggled to understand upgrades it deployed to its cars.
Even still, Ricciardo was pleased with how that race panned out – aside from the result – but equally knows more is needed to ensure his safety.
“I’ve obviously got a good opportunity, I say until the summer break; I don’t think that’s a deadline, but obviously that’s what you look at for the first half of the season,” he reasoned.
“I look back at Barcelona and it’s hard to get excited about a 15ht but I was actually really happy with my race.
“So I would say it’s at least now two better weekends in a row, I think.
“That’s what I’ve certainly had trouble double this year, is having a kind of strong of good results.
“Two is still not enough, of course, at least for where I want to be.
“I definitely have a chance to get into the summer break with some momentum.”
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