Helmut Marko:
“The shareholders have made it known that it is a junior team and we have to act accordingly. The goal was that [Daniel Ricciardo] would be considered for Red Bull Racing with exceptional performances. That seat now belongs to Sergio Perez, so that plan is no longer valid.”
“We have to put a young driver in there soon. That would be Liam Lawson.”
Keep in mind that Marko has a personal interest to keep his Academy drivers coming into the two Red Bull teams, instead of drivers coming from outside like Perez and Ricciardo
In this case I think it’s more than self promotion and shit stirring. He knows the future of red bull after Max isn’t in a Formula 1 car, and that’s kind of his job to take care of.
Checo is doing Checo things, forever trying to replicate his last to first drive.
Danny is more of a supersub driver than a prospect driver at this point. It’s pitiful, but it is what it is.
Yuki shows flashes of brilliant driving but just can’t seem to impress anyone at Red Bull enough to be considered for the main team.
That leaves basically no one besides the academy drivers, and I think the point he’s making is it doesn’t make a lot of sense to tread water with ‘average’ drivers when you could be developing someone else with a higher ceiling.
Imo Yuki would be better in a main RB seat, just because of the car. I think he’d pretty consistently be in the lower points places.
Is Ricciardo not technically an academy driver?
Technically, as in 10 years ago, yes. But I dont think Marko was involved in his comeback at AlphaTauri/RB.