British racing driver Richard Bradley is convinced Daniel Ricciardo will no longer be racing for RB by the time the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix comes around next month.
The Australian F1 driver got a seat back in the sport midway through last season after Nyck de Vries was dumped by AlphaTauri.
He finished ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in a few races, including an impressive seventh-placed finished at the Mexican Grand Prix.
But Ricciardo has struggled to kick on in his first full season with the Italian racing team, who were rebranded as RB from AlphaTauri for this year.
He's yet to score a championship point and was blamed by some for his crash at the Japanese Grand Prix with Alex Albon to end both their races.
Daniel Ricciardo is under pressure to perform at RB
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Ricciardo will be hoping for a better show this week at the Chinese Grand Prix, but Bradley feels the writing is already on the wall for him and has tipped Liam Lawson to take his seat next month.
“He’s gone after Miami, 100%," Bradley said on the On Track GP podcast.
“As soon as we go to Europe, he’s gone after Miami. I mean that crash that happened in Suzuka, I did a lot of my racing in my junior years in Japan and I did Super Formula GT there, so I’ve raced at Suzuka loads of times.
“And that crash, it was almost like a complete lapse of concentration.
“At that point, if you come out of that first corner, you know you’re going to have cars in your blind spot.
“There’s a huge blind spot in a Formula 1 car anyway and if there’s a car on your outside there, it doesn’t really matter what happens because you’re not going to be able to overtake the car in front.
“So, to swing across into [Alex] Albon like he did, it was an amateur mistake that you’d expect a Formula 4 driver to make.
“I was really surprised by that and you’ve seen nothing at the minute that’s convincing you that he deserves to stay in that seat over Liam Lawson.
“I think they’ll get China out of the way, they’ll get Miami out of the way and then they’ll reset for the European leg of the season and I think you’ll see Lawson in the car.”
Lawson was given an unexpected chance to drive in F1 last season as he stepped in for Ricciardo for a handful of races after Ricciardo broke his hand.
Daniel Ricciardo was deemed at fault by some for a crash with Alex Albon
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He exceeded expectations and made a real case to take a full-time seat with RB before they chose to stick with Ricciardo.
The New Zealander has made no secret of his desire to one day drive for Red Bull having been a part of their development programme for several years.
However, he's prepared to look elsewhere if needed with plenty of chances set to pop up for next season.
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Liam Lawson is waiting for a chance back in F1
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“For me, the dream is to drive with Red Bull, and I’ve been with them now for more than five years,” Lawson said recently.
“They’re the most competitive team in Formula 1 right now. So if I would choose, I would drive for them.
“But my dream is to be in Formula 1 – and if it can’t be with them, then obviously, I need to try and make that happen with somebody else.”
