Daniel Ricciardo returns to F1, Christian Horner extols him

The return to the grid is greeted by words of high praise from the parent company.

Daniel Ricciardo in AlphaTauri in place of Nyck de Vries is the big news in Formula 1 Tuesday. The news has been made official by the team based in Faenza, but obviously a big weight comes from Red Bull, which owns it. And not surprisingly, Christian Horner also decided to extol the Australian driver, who in this 2023 had so far held the role of third driver behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

In fact, the announcement of Ricciardo in AlphaTauri came at the end of the Pirelli tests, which the Australian himself had conducted for Red Bull at Silverstone. Well, it seems indeed that his performance on the track was of the highest level despite the months of inactivity, and it was precisely this aspect that attracted the attention of Horner. Who did not spare his driver any compliments.

“Daniel certainly hasn’t lost his form while he’s been away from racing, and that’s fantastic,” Horner said of Ricciardo in fact, as ‘ESPN’ reports. “The steps forward conducted by him in the simulation sessions have had important effects on the track. And now, during the Pirelli tests, he has done extremely competitive times. He drove really impressively, and now we are looking forward to seeing his performance in AlphaTauri where he will run on loan for the rest of the season.”

Daniel Ricciardo, born in 1989 in Perth, Australia, is one of the flagships of the Red Bull Junior Team. Aside from his debut season in Formula 1 in 2011 in HRT, he has since followed the same trajectory as the likes of Vettel, Verstappen, Kvyat, Gasly and Albon, militating in Toro Rosso before his promotion to the main house team. Instead, from 2019 to 2022 he raced first for Renault and then McLaren.