Steiner wonders why Ricciardo does not want to race next year
Oct.23 - Gunther Steiner says he isn't sure why Daniel Ricciardo would choose a reserve role over a full-time Formula 1 race seat for 2023.
As it became clear that the 33-year-old Australian was losing his place at McLaren, Haas boss Steiner revealed that he sent a "text" to Ricciardo in September.
Nothing came of that, so just this week Steiner invited Ricciardo to give him a call amid Haas' deliberations about Mick Schumacher's future.
"If he's interested in us, he's not shy to call me up," Steiner told the Associated Press. "I am not going to chase him down.
"I want him to decide what he wants to do for himself, first, before being talked into something."
It was believed that Ricciardo's clear plan was to essentially take a 'sabbatical' of sorts next year whilst serving as Mercedes' full-time reserve.
However, it now appears as though the former Red Bull and Renault driver may in fact be the full-time reserve for both Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri in 2023.
"It's kind of like just hitting pause for a little bit, as I see it - and let's say as far as my F1 career goes the full intention is to be racing for '24," said Ricciardo.
The implication is that Ricciardo would prefer the Red Bull reserve post over actually racing full-time for Haas.
When asked about that, Steiner said in Austin: "I think you need to ask Danny that one, not me, about why he doesn't want to race.
"I don't know if it's something against Haas or just he decides to do something different for a year. I cannot guess what he wants to do. I have no idea what to answer you."
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Gunny, I'm sure that DRic would love to race in 2023, just not for a backmarker who can't find the light switch at dusk.
My guess is because he would rather be the reserve driver for Red Bull and AlphaTauri than race around at the back of the field in a Goggomobil.
Now this has got me thinking given that Sergio Perez talks about his struggles with the RB and it clear it doesn’t suit his driving style, and given the speed of the RB they should be finishing top two every race.
So it would be handy to have a reserve driver whose style is better suited to the car and could jump in and be on the pace straight away.
Now I’m not trying to start a rumour however rumours are fun.
So can anyone explain why you would bring a driver into the team, use him for running simulations at HQ and have him in the garage on race days. He will also have to be brought up to speed on the workings of the car, how it reacts to different changes, he needs the same if not more information about the car than Max and Sergio as he will be running simulations on both their setups if in the simulator on race days. He will also gains a very sound understanding of the development direction that the car is heading.
So basically they are giving all this training and inside knowledge to a guy that’s made it quite clear that he is planning on being back on the grid in 2024 and it’s a real possibility that if Hamilton was to retire it could be at MB.
Maybe I’ve read to much into this but there is no way Red Bull are going to dump all this data on him and risk him heading off to a team like MB or Ferrari in 2024.
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