Daniel Ricciardo has dreamt of going back to Red Bull and being Max Verstappen‘s teammate for a long time and Sergio Perez’s P2 position may have inflicted a minor dent to his hopes. But, turns out, it’s not all over for the Australian after all. The talks of Ricciardo’s return started when the driver suddenly joined redbull as the third and reserved driver for 2023 after not getting a seat in Formula One
With his McLaren team dropping him for a rookie, the Australian contacted Christian Horner who helped him by giving him a temporary seat. As time passed by, the driver got a chance to join AlphaTauri while Nyck de Vries was fired from the team for doing a terrible job for half of the season.
Daniel Ricciardo is finally closer to stealing Sergio Perez’s seat
Ricciardo talked about wanting to drive for Redbull numerous amount of times throughout the season while Sergio Perez struggled to handle the same rocket ship that Max Verstappen was driving to clinch his third championship title however it seems that he may have manifested his wish to compete with the Dutchman.
Ricciardo has done a great job compared to Yuki Tsunoda at AlphaTauri. While the Japanese driver has been with the team for the entire season, he has only managed to secure P10 while getting a big break for two races and scoring a few more points for his team.
However, Ricciardo was the first to bring AlphaTauri a P7 finish and single-handedly brought the team two positions ahead in the constructors championship helping them leave Haas and Alfa Romeo behind.
Before his P7 the Australian also managed to put in a great qualification after finishing right behind Max Verstappen and starting his race from P4. Although many believe that he may not have done that great of a job to deserve Sergio Perez’s seat who has at least won two races and managed to stay P2 in the championship and fulfilled Red Bull’s long-time dream.
🚨 Joe Saward: “Informed sources suggest that there is a provision in Ricciardo’s contract for him to switch into Red Bull Racing after the early races next year if Sergio Perez does not up his game.”
He also adds that in this case Ricciardo’s salary would triple and Liam Lawson… pic.twitter.com/bzfdyWCu6T
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) December 1, 2023
Although Jose Saward recently stated, “Informed sources suggest that there is a provision in Ricciardo’s contract for him to switch into Red Bull Racing after the early races next year if Sergio Perez does not up his game.”
He also added that in case of this happening Ricciardo’s salary triple bringing the driver anywhere between $20 million to $40 million per year while AlphaTauri will bring in Lawson for the rest of the 2024 season.
Should Ricciardo stick with AlphaTauri?
Daniel Ricciardo has had a tough year this season considering he has sat out of most of the races although he did bring crucial points for the team and helped them get some leverage over the other teams. However, with a new admission of his potential move making the headlines, it is only fair to compare his performance to Sergio Perez.
DANIEL WHAT OMG DANIEL RICCIARDO pic.twitter.com/mLhYsg89q4
— booo🦌 (@genevabrainbowl) November 24, 2023
Sergio Perez has not had the best season compared to his teammate, Max Verstappen who drove the very same car he has. However, the Mexican has managed to get two race wins and nine podium wins in a season, compared to Daniel Ricciardo who had to sit out of the races for various reasons and only managed a P7.
While the point that Ricciardo was in a less competitive car than Perez remains, he has also struggled to maintain the same pace as Max Verstappen in the past and confessed to losing all his passion for the sport. Although it could work out well, the Red Bull team could keep him at AlphaTauri for another year until they are sure of his performance.