Daniel Ricciardo's Formula 1 season could have been over as early as June, according to Red Bull Racing's team principal. 

Ricciardo was axed by Red Bull's sister team, RB, following last month's Singapore Grand Prix with New Zealand young gun Liam Lawson to drive the final six race weekends of the year. 

The Australian, who won seven of his eight F1 victories with Red Bull between 2014-2018, appears likely to have driven his last grand prix.

However, Red Bull's team principal Christian Horner has told the F1 Nation podcast there were calls to axe the Australian from the RB cockpit after June's Spanish Grand Prix. 

“He started the season roughly, then Miami was a weekend of two halves; the Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic and it looked like the Daniel of old, defending against Ferraris, out-driving the car, but then Saturday afternoon and the Sunday were disastrous.

“Even around Barcelona, Helmut [Marko, Red Bull motorsport advisor] wanted him out of the car.

“There was already a lot of pressure on him there, but by the time we got to Montreal it was actually dear old Jacques Villeneuve who got him properly wound up by giving him a hard time.

“It definitely fired him up because the way he drove the car that weekend, he grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and put together a very strong race weekend."

Ricciardo qualified a lowly 18th for the Spanish Grand Prix and placed 15th in the race. 

The Australian returned to the Red Bull family in 2023 as a reserve driver after being moved-on by McLaren with a year remaining on his contract. 

Ricciardo took over from rookie Nick de Vries in the sister team [then called AlphaTauri], before breaking his wrist and missing several races while Lawson filled in and did a terrific job. 

Horner said Red Bull's hope was for Ricciardo to be ready to step-up alongside world champion Max Verstappen if Red Bull Racing's second driver Sergio Perez continued to falter. 

"I've done my very best to buy him as much time in the car to allow him to deliver, so otherwise he would have been out of the car after Barcelona," Horner said.

"All the drivers are under pressure to deliver but the reason that Daniel was in that car was to get himself back into a position to ultimately be there to pick up the pieces if Checo [Perez] didn't deliver.

"The problem was, they both had issues with form at varying times.

"Checo started the season very well, very strongly, and Daniel was struggling.

"Then, as Checo lost form, Daniel found a bit of form but it was never compelling enough to say, 'OK we should switch the two drivers'."

Lawson now has the opportunity to cement himself as a Formula 1 driver for the remaining six race weekends in the 2024 season.

Horner said he wanted Ricciardo to be able to see out the season, but the six-race block at the end of the year provided the opportunity to prepare for the future. 

"In a perfect world that would have been what we would've done, but from a broader perspective, we need answers for the bigger picture in terms of drivers," he said.

"It's the perfect opportunity to line Liam [Lawson] up alongside Yuki [Tsunoda] to see how he performs over the next six grands prix."