“This is a great opportunity for him,” Mark Webber is happy for Daniel Ricciardo as the Aussie joins Red Bull as a third driver
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Australian racer Oscar Piastri set off waves in the Formula 1 world before even setting foot into the pinnacle of motorsports. And this was all because of the drama surrounding him in the F1 2023 Drivers’ Market. The Formula 1 silly season started with Sebastian Vettel announcing his retirement from the sport at the end of 2022, leaving a spot at Aston Martin up for grabs. A few days later, Fernando Alonso was confirmed to be Vettel’s replacement at the British team. And then, there was a question regarding who will take up the two-time World Champion’s spot at the French team. And all fingers pointed towards Alpine prodigy Oscar Piastri.
Meanwhile, rumors swirled in the F1 community that McLaren were quite unhappy with Daniel Ricciardo’s declining performance and they wanted to prematurely terminate their multi-year contract with him by paying a hefty penalty of £16 million. Finally, the Woking-based outfit did confirm the rumors, and thus they had a seat empty for a potential driver to settle in beside Lando Norris. Now, amidst all this, Alpine officially announced they are appointing Oscar Piastri as their new driver but the Aussie denied the report, saying that he has not signed any formal agreement yet.
A few days later, a court hearing gave the verdict that Oscar Piastri had made use of some loopholes in his contract with Alpine, and the French team had no way of holding the young racer responsible for not accepting their offer and going to some other team for the 2023 season. And in the end, McLaren announced that Oscar Piastri would be joining them for the upcoming year, and Daniel was thus going to released by the team at the end of 2022. Finally, Red Bull announced that they are taking up Ricciardo as a third driver besides Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
Related: “Any conversations around buying McLaren is a non-starter” : Zak Brown
Mark Webber is happy for Daniel Ricciardo’s non-driving role at Red Bull
It will not be Daniel Ricciardo’s first time joining hands with Red Bull as he has already spent quite a few seasons with the Austrian team until he decided to shift to Renault in 2019. Returning to Red Bull will be easy for Daniel as he is already accustomed to the team’s ways and he knows the executives there.
While speaking on whether it was a wise move on the Honey Badger’s part to accept the non-driving role at Red Bull, Mark Webber said, “Yeah, I think that Daniel needs a break to reflect and find motivation. This is a great opportunity for him, and they [Red Bull] will also get some advantages. He has mad popularity all over the world, so that’s great marketing.”
In the future seasons of Formula 1, the biggest question is if Daniel Ricciardo will make a comeback into regular racing after spending one year off the tracks like Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon did. Only time will tell if the Australian will get the chance, and if his luck shines, maybe Red Bull will appoint him again in place of Sergio Perez.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)