Red Bull’s Sergio Perez may be carrying a weight on his shoulders for the last three races of the 2023 Formula One season and this is the weight of Australian Daniel Riccardo.
After crashing out of the Mexican Grand Prix at turn one on Sunday, talks of the drivers future in the Red Bull seat have gotten a lot more popular.
This is due to the phenomenal drive that the “Honey Badger” produced, finishing in 7th place recording points for AlphaTauri.
Alongside his race result, the 34-year-old impressed qualifying alongside this seasons World Champion Max Verstappen, and also outpaced Perez to earn himself a second row start.
Despite Red Bull’s dominance this season, there has always been a shadow covering the future of the Mexican yet this shadow has now cleared.
Before replacing Nick De Vries at AlphaTauri in July before the Hungarian Grand Prix, Riccardo was named as Red Bull’s third driver and impressed during testing and in his simulation drives.
Daniel Riccardo earned his first points of the season (6) on Sunday. (image from Planetf1)
The Perth born driver is no stranger to life at Red Bull, as he enjoyed a four year spell at the team from 2014-2018 where he recorded seven race wins and 29 podiums under Principal Christian Horner.
Horner hailed his praises for Riccardo after the Mexican Grand Prix, saying:
“It is great to see Daniel performing so well and fully endorses the reason why we brought him back into the AlphaTauri.
“I thought he was outstanding this weekend, fighting Mercedes in an AlphaTauri – and had it not been for the red flag, he’d have finished higher up.” Said the Red Bull boss.
Perez still has a 20 point lead over seven time World Champion Lewis Hamilton in second place, and sets Red Bull up for a 1-2 which has never been done in their history.
The 33-year-old still also has an agreement with Red Bull for his seat keeping him there until the end of 2024, likewise with Daniel Riccardo in his AlphaTauri.
Horner also reinforced that he does not intend to let Perez lose his seat, yet with Riccardo starting to display form and Perez flaking, it will be exciting to see how their lineup will form in a couple of years time.
