F1 chief claims Red Bull 'blocked' Daniel Ricciardo comeback
Daniel Ricciardo finally returned to the paddock with Alpha Tauri last season after spending the first ten races of the year as the Red Bull reserve driver.
AlphaTauri chief executive Peter Bayer claims Red Bull delayed Daniel Ricciardo racing for their sister team last year. The Australian started the 2023 season as a reserve driver after leaving McLaren before returning to the paddock.
Ricciardo, 34, replaced Formula 1 rookie Nyck de Vries ten races into the season with the Dutchman losing his seat following the British Grand Prix. On the same day as the decision to release De Vries, AlphaTauri announced Ricciardo would fill the vacant seat to partner Yuki Tsunoda.
The Australian returned at the Hungarian Grand Prix and drove again in Belgium before breaking a metacarpal bone in his hand at the Dutch GP. That meant missing the rest of that weekend and the following four rounds.
Ricciardo returned from injury for the final five races, coming 7th in Mexico, the team's best finish all season. AlphaTauri has since confirmed he is returning alongside Tsunoda for the 2024 season.
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Now, Bayer, who only became the team's CEO in June, has shared an insight into how Ricciardo returned to the paddock. "When I started, I always looked a bit and thought to myself, 'If Nyck de Vries doesn't make it in terms of performance, then Daniel would be a great solution for us'," he told Motorsport Magazine.
"Why? Daniel has experience, so he helps us with the setup on all the routes. Daniel is a real reference for Yuki [Tsunoda]. He brought an incredible amount of new energy into the team within a week.
"Our mechanics were happy, 'Hey, wow, something is happening!' The transition wasn't easy, but at the end of the day, it had such a positive impact."
Bayer continued: "Originally, it was said, 'No, Daniel is a reserve driver at Red Bull, and it stays that way'. And then, over the course of a month, we actually kept asking how things were going.
"At some point, Christian Horner came to us and said, 'We're doing the test at Silverstone; maybe we'll take a look at it'. Then Helmut [Marko] said, 'Yes, why not?'"
As he alluded to, Marko makes the final call on such decisions about drivers. "Everyone really sits at the same table," he explained about the process.
"There were discussions in which [Red Bull projects chief] Oliver Mintzlaff was involved, [now-former AlphaTauri team principal] Franz Tost was, of course, involved in a leading role, but Christian Horner was also at the table at one point. Ultimately, the decision is made by Helmut Marko - it will stay that way."
Ricciardo has previously spoken about the private Silverstone test that swayed Marko. “I’m not gonna sugarcoat it," he explained on the Beyond The Grid podcast.
"The first timed lap I did was on the money. Take the fuel out to put it to quali[fying] fuel, and it was a few hundredths off Max’s [Verstappen's] pole time.”