Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says Daniel Ricciardo is a genuine option to replace Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen’s teammate in 2025.
Ricciardo has replaced AlphaTauri rookie Nyck De Vries just 10 races into the season and will suit up for Red Bull’s feeder team at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
It’s a huge step in the right direction for Ricciardo and has already sparked speculation he could replace Perez next season if the Mexican’s poor run of form, particularly in qualifying, continues.
Red Bull isn’t afraid of cutthroat moves, but Perez is contracted to the end of 2024 and Verstappen is contracted until the end of 2027.
Ricciardo is on loan to AlphaTauri for the rest of this season but has nothing set in stone for 2024 at this stage.
Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Horner pointed out Perez’s contract situation and said Ricciardo’s best chance of returning to the grid would be to prove he’s still got it with AlphaTauri and target Perez’s seat in 2025.
“At the moment there’s only something in place until the end of the season,” Horner said.
“So there’s no thoughts or expectations beyond that. We’ve loaned him (Ricciardo) to AlphaTauri to the end of the year. Obviously our drivers are going to be Max and Checo again next year. But it’s always good to have talent in reserve.
“I think Daniel is viewing AlphaTauri, he firmly wants to be pitching for that 2025 Red Bull seat. That’s his golden objective. And by going to AlphaTauri, I think he sees that as his best route of stating his case for 2025.”
De Vries was given the flick by Red Bull before the halfway mark of the season in a brutal call, but Horner believes it was the right one given Ricciardo’s class and experience.
“Obviously it was a difficult situation for Nyck De Vries … there was a general feeling Nyck wasn’t quite hitting the mark,” Horner said.
“From a Red Bull perspective, the most interesting option for me was to see how Daniel performed (in the tyre testing). That was the decision that was made, it all happened pretty quick and now here he is for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
“What you have to remember is Daniel had driven for us for five years and he had won seven grands prix in that time. He had spent three years driving alongside Max and the margins between them at that stage were pretty fine.
“Daniel isn’t a junior driver. He’s already proven himself in the time he’s had with us and therefore it was just trying to make sure he rediscovered the form that we knew he was capable of.”
Horner also lifted the lid on a meeting he had with Ricciardo after his McLaren campaign ended, describing the Aussie veteran as “broken”.
“He was prepared if you like to take a step backwards to try and take two steps forwards,” the Red Bull boss said.
“I had a meeting with Daniel and it was clear his options for this year were going to be a bit limited and he just looked a bit broken,” Horner said.
“So I said, why don’t you come back to Red Bull for 12 months … come back into the fold and re-find the passion for the sport, because it was clear he wasn’t enjoying things.”
Ricciardo impressed in the RB19 in the recent Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone, but Horner claimed he had to undo bad habits from his days at McLaren to get his mojo back.
“It was a complete disaster. He’d picked up every bad habit imaginable. He was working with his previous engineer (Simon Rennie), and gradually we unpicked it,” Horner recalled.
“With each session he got better and better. You could see his confidence growing to the point he was absolutely on pace with the race drivers.”
“You could see almost the relief in his eyes and almost the pressure released off his shoulders that he could still do it – he wasn’t going mad, the old Daniel was still there.”
Ricciardo will drive for AlphaTauri at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday at 11pm AEST.
