Daniel Ricciardo admits a dream return to Red Bull will be a ‘perfect end’ to his career 

Daniel Ricciardo is currently signed to AlphaTauri, whom he joined midway tthrough 2023 to replace Nyck de Vries.

Daniel Ricciardo admits a dream return to Red Bull will be a ‘perfect end’ to his career 

Christian Horner and Daniel Ricciardo (Via IMAGO)

Daniel Ricciardo has had a dramatic relationship with his longtime racing family at Red Bull throughout his career. Graduating from Toro Rosso to Red Bull partnering with Sebastian Vettel for the 2014 season. Ricciardo immediately showed flashes of champion potential, beating the four-time World Champion and reigning champ in his first year with the team. 

Ricciardo went on to beat his next two teammates, Daniil Kvyat and future superstar Max Verstappen in their first years with the Austrian team. After leaving post-2018 due to issues with Verstappen being preferred, Ricciardo suffered setbacks with Renault and a horrendous stint with McLaren despite one win. 

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Ricciardo was out of the grid for half a year but returned with the renamed Toro Rosso, now the Scuderia AlphaTauri. As the favorite for the Red Bull seat, if Sergio Perez is ever replaced, Ricciardo said in an interview recently that he felt a return to his seat in Red Bull would be the perfect conclusion for his career.

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I am not going to put a day or date on it, but coming back into the Red Bull family, that (a Red Bull drive) is the dream. Ending my career with a Red Bull drive will be the perfect way to finish.
Ricciardo said, as reported by autoaction.com

Ricciardo has had a decent few races with his old team, Red Bull’s sister squad. The Australian will be looking to outperform his teammate Yuki Tsunoda to hold off any competition for his goals of being part of Red Bull’s 2025 driver line-up, in case Sergio Perez fails to deliver.

Daniel Ricciardo admits he was only a few hundredths off Max Verstappen in RB19 test

Daniel Ricciardo participated in a Pirelli tire test two days after the British Grand Prix, which Max Verstappen won from pole. Ricciardo represented Verstappen’s team, Red Bull, at the test, driving the RB19 which was his first F1 car since leaving McLaren in 2022.

Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo (via IMAGO)

The results of the test were undeclared by Pirelli or the FIA, but it culminated in Daniel Ricciardo being given a seat in AlphaTauri. Now finally in the Beyond the Grid podcast post-season, the eight-time Grand Prix winner revealed details about the test.

Ricciardo revealed that Red Bull had contacted him to check if he was okay driving the RB19 for the test. After receiving affirmation from the Aussie, they chose him to drive the car at the test. Ricciardo admitted that he spun twice in turns 4 and 7, but had a good run after that. Most significantly, the AlphaTauri driver claimed that his lap time after a half-season hiatus was only a couple hundredths off Max Verstappen’s pole time in the same car.

We put FP2 fuel [levels] in the car. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. The first timed lap I did was on the money. Take the fuel out to put it to quali fuel and it was a few hundredths off Max’s pole time.
Daniel Ricciardo said, as reported by planetf1

Daniel Ricciardo has a seat for the 2024 season with AlphaTauri, an opportunity for the Honey Badger to prove himself worthy of racing for the reigning champion team. Suppose Ricciardo does manage to earn his way into replacing Sergio Perez. In that case, F1 will finally see the long-awaited reunion of Max Verstappen and Ricciardo, a partnership that was extremely competitive until 2018.

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