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Daniel Ricciardo is closing on a return to Red Bull in 2023, most likely as a reserve driver, while targeting a full-time return to the grid in 2024.
Red Bull motorsports advisor Helmut Marko appeared to confirm Ricciardo would be back with the team as its reserve in 2023, in an interview with German F1 media during Friday practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Race understands that Ricciardo is closing on a deal but it is not yet completed. This was corroborated by team boss Christian Horner on Saturday, Horner confirming that Ricciardo was on course to rejoin the team “unless, of course, he chooses not to sign”.
Ricciardo’s future has been subject of much speculation since he agreed to end his McLaren F1 contract a year early to make way for Alpine reserve Oscar Piastri.
Ricciardo refused to entertain race seats at lower midfield teams such as Haas or Williams for 2023, preferring to take a sabbatical from racing in order to recover from a chastening stint with McLaren and target a return to a top team.
Lewis Hamilton said Ricciardo was too good to be an F1 reserve driver, but the eight-time grand prix winner has nevertheless elected to pursue such a role, being strongly linked with both Mercedes and Red Bull.
Ricciardo is now set to return to the team which gave him his big F1 break in 2014 and propelled him to seven of those eight victories, plus two top-three finishes in the world championship in 2014 and 2016.
Rejoining Red Bull would raise the question of whether Ricciardo has a chance of a race seat at the team in the near future.
Ostensibly there is no availability before the 2025 season, though.
Replacing double world champion Max Verstappen is a no-go, not least because Verstappen has a valid contract until the end of 2028.
And while internal tensions have recently surfaced over Sergio Perez allegedly crashing deliberately during qualifying for Monaco, leading to a team orders row in Brazil last Sunday, Perez did sign a contract extension to the end of 2024 earlier this year.
That means the only route to Ricciardo racing for the team he left for Renault at the end of 2018 would be for either Verstappen or Perez to leave, either by choice or mutual agreement.
