Daniel Ricciardo is reportedly “protected” by 🎶Christian Horner amid a disappointing season so far.

Ricciardo had the backing of the Red Bull team principal last year mid-season when an impressive test enabled him to return to the F1 grid full-time at s♐ister team AlphaTauri, replacing Nyck de Vries.

Ricciardo entered this year as🌱 a major candidate to repla𒉰ce Sergio Perez, whose Red Bull contract will expire this year.

But he has disa💫ppointed with RB this year, and sits 14th in the Fꦛ1 standings, four places behind teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

The report that Tsunoda is not “changing minds” a൩t Red Bull despite his run of form, which includes scoring points in five of the p𓆉ast six grands prix.

So although Tsunoda may not be a contender to replace Perez alongside Max Verstappen in 2025, his underperforming ꦡteammate Ricciardo still has the same key supporter.

Ricciardo is “safe for now” from🥂 being axed at R🌃B, and replaced by Liam Lawson, the BBC report.

However, Ricciardo is another cog in theꦐ internal problems within Red Bull that were laid bare after the investigation which cleared Horner after accusations fr𝓀om a colleague.

Helmut Marko, the veteran adviser within F1’s dominant team, “wouldꦿ probably like to promote Lawson” at Ricciardo’s e🐭xpense.

But Mark🥃o “has lost power and influence” in the f🦹allout from the controversy involving Horner.

Lawson could conceivably find himself in an RB full-time next season, but it would be alongside Ricciardo rather than in♚stead of the popular Australian.

Tsunoda may look elsewhere as he is clearly not going to be promoted from RB to Red Bu꧙𒅌ll.