Christian Horner Impressed: Ricciardo, a Red Bull Driver Making a Comeback
Daniel Ricciardo, he devilishly childlish Aussie F1 driver, is just too good at giving surprises. When the whole F1 world thought that his entire F1 career is gone after some disappointing performances and a major crash while driving for AlphaTauri in the 2023 F1 season, he just splendidly made an comeback inF1 with AlphaTauri for the 2024 season.
AlphaTauri is also the place where Daniel Ricciardo as a F1 driver rose to fame,( although known by Toro Rosso earlier). AlphaTauri is also the sister team of Red Bull, which is mainly there for preparing next-gen Red Bull driver.
Daniel Ricciardo, developed by this ALPHATAURI, then spend a significant amount of time in the main parent team, Red Bull where he was at his prime, so much that Red Bull considered him as the best driver on their paddock. But time has passed by after that, and Daniel Ricciardo’s has gone through many ups and downs as well. After Red Bull prioritized Max Verstappen to be their no. 1 driver, Dan8el left Red Bull and made strong stints with Renault,cLaren and then again coming back full circle to AlphaTauri in 2023.
Upon replacing Nyck De Vries prior to the 2023 season’s summer break, Ricciardo’s ‘dream’ of finishing his Formula 1 career with Red Bull took a step closer to reality. He had to overcome obstacles like a hand injury that prevented him from driving for five races, but Horner was still pleased with him at the end of the year.
The Red Bull boss, who has spent time with Ricciardo during his stint with Red Bull really knows how much Daniel is worth and what a talent he replay is. So, he is mightily happy to have Daniel back at the Red Bull family and commented-
“With his experience, he gave the team some engineering direction, which was very helpful to the AlphaTauri team.”
“I’m glad to see Daniel back in Formula One.” Throughout the winter, I was eager to reintegrate him into the group.
“You could sense when he came to us that he was pretty much done with Formula One; he wasn’t enjoying it. But gradually, that enthusiasm and smile returned, and the test in Silverstone was really impressive for us.
“The labor that goes into the simulator behind the scenes as well. He was worthy of the opportunity in the AlphaTauri.
“He drove really well this year, but it was unfortunate that he broke his hand in Zandvoort.”