Daniel Ricciardo has said he is reinvigorated for his return to Formula One at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, declaring he has fallen in love with the sport again. The Australian, who will drive for AlphaTauri at the Hungaroring, was also explicit in stating he was targeting a return to the Red Bull team.
Ricciardo, who was Red Bull’s reserve driver, was given the race seat last week at their sister team, AlphaTauri, to replace the underperforming Nyck de Vries. The mid-season switch was a ruthless move and also perceived as a potential precursor towards Ricciardo being promoted to replace Sergio Pérez at Red Bull.
Ricciardo had endured two poor seasons at McLaren in 2021 and 2022, which had been a blow to his confidence and the team let him go, leading to him taking the reserve driver slot at Red Bull, with whom he had raced from 2014 to 2018 and taken seven wins. The 34-year-old had not been expecting to be back in a seat so soon but, speaking in Budapest, he said was revitalised by the new challenge.
“Six months ago I wasn’t in a place to jump at an opportunity like this,” he said. “But that’s been the luxury of time, I’ve fallen in love with it again and I feel like I’m being myself again, back in an environment that is giving me a lot of nostalgia.”
The spotlight on Ricciardo’s performance here will be intense. Pérez has been through a run of poor meetings, failing to make the final session of qualifying in the previous five races, while his teammate Max Verstappen is running away with the title in the same car and leads Pérez by 99 points. Ricciardo’s return to a race seat is considered a step toward him potentially replacing Pérez, and the Australian admitted a return to the team would be the “dream” outcome.
“It’s kind of another chance to make things better,” he said. “I think that’s why I was excited to get back behind the wheel and just kind of show my true self. Even the thought of that excites me. Obviously the dream is a Red Bull seat. Of course that was my wish, but you need to be realistic, and if I want to get back into Red Bull it will be a process, and this is the best path for me at the moment.”
Ricciardo has not driven a car competitively since the end of last season and the AlphaTauri is a handful to manage and is off the pace. He has, however, tested this year’s Red Bull at Silverstone and his first challenge will be up against his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, the 23-year-old Japanese driver now in his third season with the team.
Ricciardo said that while there were no specific targets he was expected to reach over the forthcoming 12 meetings to make his case for retaining the seat or a move up to Red Bull, he knew he had to deliver strong performances.
“There’s no real criteria at the moment,” he said. “But I need to show something, for sure, for next year and beyond, there’s no guarantees probably ever with this sport.”
