Daniel Ricciardo was a driver for Red Bull before he made his move to drive for other teams. While his time at Red Bull, he won many podiums and races. But after his return to Red Bull from McLaren, it was not easy at first. His time at McLaren was not great, he struggled to find his place in the front. When he announced his leave from McLaren, he did not seem to have any place to go.
Daniel Ricciardo was soon taken in by Red Bull as their third, reserve and test driver. When Sergio Perez started flunking his performances in the qualifications and the races. There had been rumors of Daniel Ricciardo joining Red Bull to replace Sergio Perez. But soon after Helmut Marko made a statement about Sergio Perez not leaving the Red Bull team.
After Nyck de Vries’ poor performance compared to his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Red Bull decided to replace Nyck with Daniel. He had been practicing in the simulator and had a few test laps. Nyck de Vries was fired by Helmut Marko and Daniel was welcomed to the AlphaTauri team. But after no seat in Formula 1 for 6 months, how did Daniel Ricciardo manage to get a seat mid-season?
Was Daniel Ricciardo returning to F1 preplanned?
Christian Horner was asked about Daniel Ricciardo’s return to Red Bull and joining AlphaTauri. He talked about how Daniel had not been a junior although he was put on the junior team. And praised him, saying that he has proven himself on the tracks with his Red Bull wins. Although his move had not been the way he wanted, the change had a drastic effect on him.
Horner had met with Daniel before the move and talked about his seat at Red Bull. He talked about it on the F1 Nation Podcast saying,
“The ball started rolling in a hotel room in Mexico last year. I had an appointment with Daniel, where it became clear that his options for 2023 were limited. He looked broken.”
“So I said, ‘Why don’t you come back to Red Bull for a year?’ So he could help us with simulator work, and tire testing, to rediscover his passion, because it was clear he wasn’t enjoying it anymore, to be honest, I haven’t seen the Ricciardo who was at Red Bull in recent years back. That’s how it started.”
Horner talked about Daniel had lost all his passion and devotion to the sport he loved. He had been lost and seemed completely broken. That was when Daniel was given a seat at Red Bull where he served as a reserve, test, and third driver for Red Bull. He stayed with Red Bull for six months, working in the simulator. Ricciardo also drove alongside Sebastian Vettel at Nurburgring. He is set to drive for AlphaTauri moving forward.