According to a Formula1News report, Daniel Ricciardo has returned to Red Bull after being let go by McLaren. Earlier in the year, McLaren made their decision to split up with Daniel Ricciardo, citing that despite extensive attempts from both sides to make their team successful, it was completely futile.
Daniel Ricciardo will be succeeded at McLaren by Oscar Piastri in 2023, and in the following year, the Australian plans to make a comeback to the racing grid by serving as a third driver for Red Bull in the meantime.
Mercedes wanted to replace Nyck de Vries who was bound for AlphaTauri, there were speculations that Red Bull and the Silver Arrows would engage in a direct battle for Ricciardo’s signature.
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The 33-year-old finally made the decision to go back to Red Bull, where he experienced the most successful period of his career, and cited familiarity as one of the factors in his decision to decline Toto Wolff and Mercedes.
Ricciardo said: “I’ve obviously jumped around a bit in the last two years, and maybe a bit of familiarity would be good for me, to just go back and work with people I’ve worked with before and obviously a car – I appreciate the cars have changed now – that I gelled very well with,”
“Just kind of jumping back and thinking about going to the sim work and doing all that, it just felt like this is probably the environment that will just settle me in best and make me figure out what’s the next step beyond this and what I really want after 2023.”
Williams and Haas both expressed interest in signing Ricciardo, giving the eight-time race winner alternatives to remain on the grid for 2023. However, it is said that Ricciardo was unwilling to join a team that did not live up to his aspirations of winning races.
In a behind-the-scenes video from earlier this season, Ricciardo is seen telling Sergio Perez that it has always been his intention to take a year off from racing before making a comeback with a competitive team in 2024.
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Red Bull has voiced its excitement at Australian’s comeback to the Austrian-based team, with Helmut Marko and Christian Horner outlining Ricciardo’s immense commercial worth to the team and how they want to utilize him for sponsor events and show runs.
Despite Toto Wolff’s prior confirmation of his team’s interest in the Australian driver, Ricciardo has now revealed that the discussions with the Silver Arrows had collapsed, leading to his return to Red Bull.
He said: “So there were talks with Mercedes as well, and I was also appreciative of their engagement as well because there was certainly an appetite for that,”
“It kind of stalled a bit, and then the Red Bull stuff started to make more and more sense and had more and more legs, and then it naturally progressed as it did.”
