Ricciardo aims for top team return, but what does his future hold?
Apr.11 - Lando Norris says his new teammate is a tougher challenge than the ousted Daniel Ricciardo.
The Woking based team decided to slip out of its contract with Australian Ricciardo at the end of last year, replacing him with his much-younger rookie countryman Oscar Piastri.
"He's doing really well, honestly," Norris is quoted by the Dutch source Formule 1. "He handles pressure very well, I think that's one of his strengths.
"He's calm, controlled and quick, so he's got a lot of what you need. He pushes me more compared to the competition I've had in recent years, which is also a good thing for us as a team."
Ricciardo, 33, is now a part-time ambassador and test driver for Red Bull Racing.
Boss Christian Horner thinks the 8-time team race winner "picked up some habits" during his years at McLaren - including getting so thin that Red Bull has had to "feed him up".
"It was clear when he came back that he had picked up some habits," he said. "We didn't recognise him as the Daniel that that had left us two or three years earlier."
Daniel Ricciardo and Christian Horner
For his part, Ricciardo says he has used his racing sabbatical so far to figure out what went wrong at McLaren.
"It's only been a few months," he told Speed Week, "but I already know what I want to do differently when I'm back on the grid next year.
"That's cool, because I wouldn't know if I was sitting in the car again this year."
Some believe Ricciardo is aiming to convince Red Bull to reunite him as Max Verstappen's teammate.
"I know where I want to be and that I thrive when the stakes are higher in a top team," he said. "I know it will probably be difficult to achieve that, but that's my goal."
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Most teams, including the top ones, have clear driver plans for the medium & or longer term, so a 2024 full-time return is unrealistic.
I'm afraid Ricciardo, now only has a chance of getting back in the Red Bull, if something uncespected happens to Perez or Verstappen.
Teams are not obligated to honour drivers' contracts, they can simply pay them out. Similarly, drivers can break their contracts as well. I have mentioned before that Red Bull did not offer Daniel Ricciardo a contract just to help him regain his form and then release him to join another team after a year of gaining valuable knowledge in their simulator, gaining inside information such as why Red Bulls DRS system is so much faster. Red Bull is not known for sharing their knowledge with someone who isn’t part of a back up plan. Daniel Ricciardo is there to take over a seat in 2024. Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez have a strong distrust of each other, and given that Sergio Pérez is not going to be backing down this year, their relationship could become toxic. If Pérez tries to beat Max, he will not be able to start next year as his wingman. Therefore, this year is his best chance, as from what we have seen, he only needs to outperform Max.
Plus they're not required to pay them out if the driver accepts a race seat elsewhere , if memory serves me right , it also financially suited Daniel NOT to take a race seat with another team so he could get A years salary off Mcl, which was far more than anyone had offered him for a seat/if at all