Albadari plans for Ricciardo to return for Austin

We had to wait five Grands Prix in a row for an almost identical press release with Liam Lawson reconfirmed as the second AlphaTauri driver. The young New Zealander was recalled by the Red Bull team after Daniel Ricciardo broke his arm in seven places in second free practice at Zandvoort.

DannyRic in turn relieved the underperforming Nyck de Vries. However, following a FaceTime call between Daniel and Liam ahead of Qatar, the Kiwi’s F1 career appears to have been put on hold again.

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Back to Austin

AlphaTauri is counting on Ricciardo’s services again for the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. According to CEO Peter Bayer, the eight-time Grand Prix winner was already ready for Qatar, but together with the team decided to postpone his return.

The race at COTA takes place on October 22 ie The Honey Badger Two more weeks to heal. According to Bayer, a comeback in Austin is already planned:

“Of course that’s the plan. He was in the simulator on Monday and he said he could go almost to the end, but it’s not 100%. We don’t want to rush it. From the other side we have the wonderful luxury of “a great third driver who can jump on the seat with Liam, we’re together to give him a bit more time. We decided. He should be in the car in Austin.”

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A man of experience

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Liam Lawson’s strong performance over the past five races has raised questions both within and outside the team. After all, Ricciardo has yet to really show that he has regained his old form in his two full races, while Lawson has almost doubled the team’s points total after three races with minimal preparation. However, Daniel is the designated driver of AlphaTauri in 2023 and beyond.

However, Bayer’s explanation for the remarkable turn of events is more logical. An experienced driver is needed for the campaign to breathe new life into the faltering team. Ricciardo should help with the transition from AT to Hugo Boss/adidas Bulls. Running a pure training team for Red Bull Juniors is unlikely in the foreseeable future:

“We had a lot of discussions about the future of the team and our partners said, ‘We want you to continue training the drivers, but we also want you to win’. And at the end of the day I don’t think you can have both.”

“You can’t have two ‘young’ drivers in the team. We looked at what was needed to achieve that and came to the conclusion that we only had two seats, especially with Daniel providing a lot of expertise. The car structure, that’s something we struggled with.”