Red Bull has confirmed the return of Daniel Ricciardo to the team that he celebrated winning seven Formula 1 Grands Prix with as the third driver for 2023. It is recalled that the Australian racer terminated the contract with McLaren, which was valid for another year, in order to free up a place in the British team for his compatriot Oscar Piastri, who will become Lando Norris’ “partner” in 2023.

Ricciardo, 33, who has eight wins in his F1 career and also won the 2021 Italian Grand Prix in a 1-2 win by McLaren, is returning to Red Bull to help with testing, work on the simulator, as well as some promotions.

The “honey badger”, as Ricciardo was called, made his F1 debut in 2011 with HRT, but he became a member of the Red Bull “family” the following year as he joined the Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) team. ). In 2014, he was transferred to Red Bull, where he remained until 2018, during which time his “teammates” included Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Kvyat and Max Verstappen. During the two years of 2019-20 he ran in F1 with Renault (now Alpine) and in 2021-22 he was with McLaren where he failed to match Lando Norris.

Source: RES-EMI