The clock is ticking on the 2023 driver market, and Daniel Ricciardo is suddenly the silly season’s biggest player.
Sacked from McLaren but desperate to continue, where he lands — and where will accept him — will shape the remainder of the silly season.
Ricciardo of course isn’t the only one who wants to see Ricciardo do well. Ever a popular paddock figure, his former Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has spoken up in support of his ex-driver, hopeful that the Dan who won seven times in one of his cars might return to F1 next year.
The man who ultimately replaced him at RBR, Sergio Perez, is meanwhile having something of a tough time despite his respectable accumulation of podium finishes this year. Roundly beaten by teammate Max Verstappen in Belgium, the Mexican wants to the team to experiment with his car to try to help close the gap as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the saga around Oscar Piastri’s F1 future continues, with Alpine taking the issue to FIA’s contract recognition board, which is due to report its conclusions in the next 24 hours.
Get up to speed with all the latest with Pit Talk.
HORNER BACKS DAN TO BOUNCE BACK
Daniel Ricciardo has received support from his former team boss Christian Horner as the Aussie fights for his F1 survival following his sacking from McLaren.
Ricciardo has had his three-season deal with the British team cut short by a year after 18 months of mystifyingly poor performances by the eight-time race winner.
But despite saying he’s determined to continue in Formula 1, he’s yet to secure himself a seat on the grid for 2023, with precious few competitive options available to him.
It would’ve seemed an unlikely situation for the Australian to find himself during his ferocious Red Bull Racing era or even his relentless seasons at Renault, so much so that Horner says the Ricciardo of 2022 is barely recognisable to the driver he fielded in 2014–18.
“He‘s a big character, he’s a big personality and I don’t think we’re seeing the real Daniel Ricciardo at the moment,” he said.
“It‘s obviously a tricky one. What he achieved with us was phenomenal. It’s a great shame to see that he’s struggling.”
Ricciardo is a former Red Bull junior and widely regraded as one of the best drivers to come from the energy drink-backed program, with only Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen having won more races after graduating to Formula 1.
He left the Red Bull fold at the end of 2018 to forge his own path away from the increasingly Verstappen-centric team in a decision many believe he’s come to regret. However, his two campaigns at Renault, including a sparkling fifth in the drivers standings in 2020, ended up burnishing his reputation ahead of his fateful move to McLaren, which has spelled his downfall.
Ricciardo is relying on his Red Bull Racing and Renault reputation to navigate his way into the safe harbour of a midfield seat next season, with Alpine the most logical destination despite his split from the French squad less than two years ago.
Haas is also known to have contacted him and appears increasingly likely to drop Mick Schumacher in favour of a more experienced driver.
“I think Formula 1 would miss him,” Horner said. “It would be great to see him find his mojo again and [hopefully] he can find a reasonable seat in Formula 1 for next year.”
PEREZ PLEADS FOR SET-UP WORK
Sergio Perez’s second place at the Belgian Grand Prix was his best result in more than two months, but the sheen of his podium result was dulled somewhat by the massive 18-second gap to Verstappen in the lead.
It was the clearest example yet of the Mexican slipping further away from the operating window of the car as it’s been developed through the season, having at times been marginally quicker than his teammate earlier in the year.
Perez hinted last month that the RB18 has been developed away from his preferences and towards Verstappen’s desired characteristics, though the team was quick to shut down any such suggestion, insisting it was only interested in making the car faster overall.
Speaking after the Belgian Grand Prix, Perez re-emphasised that he was no longer feeling at one with the car as he was when he scored fived podiums, including victory in Monaco, in six rounds earlier in the campaign.
“Certainly the car has become quicker from the beginning of the season,” he admitted. “But yeah, certainly I‘m not as comfortable as I was in the beginning of the season.
“It‘s something that I need to work on on my side to make sure we are able to get the maximum out of the car.”
Perez implored the team to help him rediscover the set-up sweet spot that he’s lost — and that Verstappen has clearly found judging by the way he powered the car around Spa — by giving him different set-up configurations at this weekend’s race to try to bring him back onto terms.
“Sometimes things come more natural for you to get the most out of your car and sometimes you have to work really hard and go very deep in the analysis to make sure you are able to extract the maximum,” he said. “It seems that we are in that window at the moment.
“I really hope that from this weekend we run the cars slightly different so we are able to spot some differences that can come bring some performance on our side.”
VERSTAPPEN VISOR TEAR-OFF RUINS LECLERC’S RACE
Ferrari already feared before the start of the Belgian Grand Prix that it was in for a tough afternoon, but Charles Leclerc’s race was dealt an early blow when he had to make an unscheduled pit stop on lap 3 to rectify an overheating front-right corner.
Having recovered to ninth on the first lap directly behind Max Verstappen, the service dropped Leclerc all the way back to 17th, from where he had to recover ground all over again.
But the overheating brake disc had a costly second effect on Leclerc’s race. It had become so hot that it had failed the speed sensor on that corner of the car.
The speed sensors are used by the pit lane speed limiter, and Leclerc was penalised five seconds for speeding in the pit lane during his final stop for soft tyres in a vain attempt to capture the bonus point for fastest lap.
It compounded an already devastating weekend for his limping championship challenge, putting him 99 points down on the rampant Verstappen and likely just four races away from being put out of his misery.
But the salt in the wound was where the visor came from.
“We were not using our normal sensors measuring the speed because they have been failed during the overheating … due to the (tear-off) of Max,” Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto revealed.
Verstappen, before Binotto had confirmed the unfortunate incident, had joked in the post-race press conference that he’d hoped it didn’t belong to him.
“It was super-hectic, and so much dirt as well,” Verstappen recounted. “I pulled off my tear-off because I barely could see anything just because of the previous sector, like everyone just going on the grass and the gravel. But we survived without damage.
“It’s just super unlucky, to be honest, that that happens. You’re always scared that it happens, especially when you are in the pack, especially on a track like this.
“That is your worst nightmare that these things happen, but unfortunately they do happen.”
It seems there really are no areas in which Verstappen isn’t scoring heavily against Leclerc this season.
INSIDER CLAIMS ALPINE ‘PLAYED’ WITH PIASTRI
An F3 driver who shares the same physio as Oscar Piastri has provided an insight into the Australian’s contract dispute and laid the blame at the feet of Alpine.
Alpine put out a statement claiming Piastri would drive for them in 2023 following Fernando Alonso’s shock exit only for the 21-year-old to refute the statement.
McLaren have lined Piastri up as Daniel Ricciardo’s replacement but Alpine are digging their heels in and this week took the matter to FIA’s contract recognition board.
Juan Manuel Correa, who appeared on Sky Sports’s ‘Any Driven Monday’ opened up on the saga and inside knowledge.
“I don’t know how much I should say, the thing is my physio this year is actually Oscar’s full-time physio,” Correa revealed.
“So, I know quite a bit about it. From my perspective and what is public knowledge, I think it is actually more of Alpine’s fault.
“They were playing a little bit with Oscar and Fernando. They didn’t give Oscar I think what they had promised, and any driver in his position would have done what he did. That’s what I think, from what I know.”
Correa went on to declare he expected Piastri to be at McLaren next season.
“I think the hearing was this morning, but I think he will be racing at McLaren next year,” he said.
“And I hope so for him because he deserves an F1 seat. It was already a shame that he didn’t get a seat immediately last year. So, at least now he will get his chance.”
AUDI AND MERCEDES TWITTER BANTER
Despite Audi’s entry into Formula 1 not due for more than three years, the German giant hasn’t been able to resist generating some early niggle among its future rivals.
In just the fourth line in its press release confirming the news that it would be joining the sport as an engine builder, the famous German brand lobbed a well-targeted grenade.
“This is the first time in more than a decade that a Formula 1 powertrain will be built in Germany,” it read, announcing that its power units would be built in Neuburg an der Donau, just outside Ingolstadt, where the company is based.
And as if the intended target of the job wasn’t clear, on social media Audi declared that “rings are the new stars”.
Mercedes, the three-pointed star, has its F1 operation, both chassis and engine, based in the UK. It’s also one-third owned by Austrian team boss Toto Wolff and one-third owned by British chemical company Ineos.
The last F1 engine to be built in Germany was the BMW P86/9, which was built in Munich and powered the 2009 Sauber entry to sixth in the constructors standings.
Toyota’s RVX-09, which was in the back of the Japanese company’s works car as well as the Williams FW31, was built in Cologne and also last competed on the grid in 2009.
Toto Wolff dead-batted the gibes, saying that Audi and presumably Porsche — more on that below — joining Formula 1 was a sign the sport is in good health.
“I think it’s good that another German OEM is being cheeky on social media, because it’s good for the sport that we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” he said. “And I see it as a compliment that they said the rings are the new stars.
“It’s good that they join. It’s good that Porsche comes, once that is confirmed. It shows the strength of Formula 1 and the attraction that it has for the best brands in the world.”
RED BULL PREPARED TO GO IT ALONE ON ENGINES
Christian Horner says Red Bull is prepared to go it along on engine development if plans to partner with Porsche fall through.
Porsche sister brand Audi confirmed its 2026 entry into Formula 1 as an engine supplier at the weekend and is expected to buy Sauber to turn it into a full works constructors.
However, despite a Red Bull-Porsche tie-up having seemed to have been on the horizon with the publication of the new engine rules, no announcement has been forthcoming,
Speaking to Autosport, Christian Horner has since said that there’s still no deal in place to bring the sports car giant into Formula 1, with Red Bull’s engine project not dependent on Porsche completing its buy-in.
The program is already well underway without outside investment, including with more than 300 personnel, many of which have been poached from Mercedes, and earlier in August it fired up its first combustion engine.
“[Porsche] fundamentally won‘t change anything, because the way that the company is constructed, we have Red Bull Powertrains that will be producing an engine for 2026,” he said.
“The whole purpose for that was to have an integrated solution between engine and chassis to bring it all under one roof, being the only team other than Ferrari. So that is the absolute clear plan.”
Auto Motor und Sport has reported Red Bull Racing has concerns about the amount of influence Porsche could wield over the F1 operation in a 50-50 joint venture. Voting rights appear to be the chief sticking point.
Horner’s clarification emphasises that Porsche’s potential involvement is somewhat less than that of Audi, which intends to buy and expand the Sauber team as well as start an engine program from scratch.
Porsche, on the other hand, intends to buy into the already established Red Bull F1 team and engine project.
