As Red Bull Racing becomes more interesting off-track than its dominant on-track performances, one constant remains… the ever-vengeful, all-watching omnipotent evil eye of the Mad Dog, Helmut Marko. This romper-stomper Red Bull advisor, whose exact role remains a mystery, has Daniel Ricciardo in his line of sight. The Mad Dog doesn’t use bullets; no, he employs straight talk to target his victims. However, it all starts with a savage hunt before his dissatisfaction becomes apparent.

Daniel Ricciardo’s return to the Red Bull family was expected to result in a straightforward annihilation of his RB teammate, Yuki Tsunoda. However, just as Ricciardo struggled to find his footing during his time at McLaren, he is now exhibiting similar difficulties upon his return to the RB team.

Yuki Tsunoda has matured into a fast and capable driver, and if Mad Dog Marko rates him, then he must be very good. However, Tsunoda isn’t the best, and Daniel Ricciardo is at least, on paper, the superior driver. Nonetheless, he is struggling to match Tsunoda’s qualifying pace.

During the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Riccardo, running down the order, made a mistake and spun before rejoing, finishing in a lowly 16th. The Mad Dog is not impressed and recently made the unprecedented step to publicly critique Riccardo, an eight-time Grand Prix winner, urging him to improve and improve quickly.

During a media interview last week the Mad Dog said;

There’s a lot at stake this season for both Yuki and Daniel. Yuki’s qualifying performance was very good and Ricciardo has to come up with something soon.”

“At least Tsunoda is very good in qualifying, then they are at the top of the World Championship points in the first stint, only to fall further and further behind afterwards.”

“They cannot maintain the speed in the long term. Whether they are putting too much strain on the tyres or there are other reasons is what they need to find out.”