Red Bull's troubling verdict on 'struggling' Ricciardo

Yuki Tsunoda has received rare praise from Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko in the wake of his points finish at the Australian Grand Prix – and it's not good news for Daniel Ricciardo.

The Japanese driver crossed the line in eighth but was promoted to seventh after Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was given a 20-second penalty.

It marked the first points of the season for RB in three races, moving Tsunoda up to 11th in the drivers' championship.

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Ricciardo, meanwhile, finished 12th and still has no points to his name.

"Yuki ran perfectly from the first lap on Friday and set very consistent and good times in today's race," said Marko after Sunday's race.

"When (Nico) Hulkenberg attacked, he immediately countered."

Marko's criticism of Tsunoda has been his hot-headedness and propensity to let frustration get the better of him.

However, the Red Bull big wig said he's happy with what he's seen so far.

"I think we have confirmed that Yuki is an absolutely mature driver."

Tsunoda and Ricciardo are both hopeful they'll get the nod to join Red Bull in 2025.

That's in part reliant on Sergio Perez and how he performs this year with the under-pressure Mexican needing to finish second in the championship.

Ricciardo, who started 18th, has yet to fire a warning shot at either Tsunoda or Perez.

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Tsunoda has pipped Ricciardo thrice in qualifying and twice in the races to date in 2024.

"He's struggling," said Marko of Ricciardo.

"We'll have to see. There were some good signs in the Bahrain test, but the last few races haven't been going too well.

"I think Ricciardo needs a safe and confident car. I hope the team can give him that so he can at least be on par with Yuki."

The Perth product admitted he is still searching for pace but believes the car does not fundamentally suit Tsunoda over him.

"I definitely believe I can do it," he said.

"It's probably a two-part process now. There's obviously me diving into the data, seeing even with driving technique; why am I doing this? Is it because of what I feel? I'm then trying to respond or correlate that to the data and talk to the engineers why I'm doing something and then ask them questions. Why is it giving me this feeling? I'm certainly throwing a lot of questions at them and I'm obviously asking myself a lot too.https://twitter.com/visacashapprb/status/1771781568069095605

"I wouldn't say there's any panic. I would have loved the season to have started better but we'll just keep digging. 

"The car hasn't changed a lot since last year, it's an update, but its characteristics are very similar. 

"I think there's some confidence in that. It's not that we've changed everything and all of a sudden this car suits Yuki and it doesn't suit me. I certainly don't feel it's anything like that. 

"I do think we'll find something. I thought it would be this weekend, maybe it's next, and if it's not the next we'll keep going until it happens. It will happen."

Formula 1 returns with the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit on April 5-7.