Daniel Ricciardo will be making his F1 return to the AlphaTauri seat after injury in the upcoming race at Austin. However, former Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg was concerned about the Australian’s health. Now, Ricciardo has confirmed, as per PlanetF1, that he is all set to return to the 2023 United States Grand Prix.
Earlier, Rosberg was concerned that Ricciardo was still unfit to return to the team and replace an outstanding Liam Lawson in the Faenza-based team. Given how physical the sport is, one needs to ensure they are at their absolute best to take charge of the proceedings, which Rosberg believes Ricciardo was not in.
The Honey Badger made his F1 return with AlphaTauri in this year’s Hungarian Grand Prix and just two races after he suffered an injury. As a result, his seat went to Lawson, who till now has shown impeccable performances in the last five races. Nevertheless, Red Bull retained the eight-time GP winner for next season for their sister team.
Is Daniel Ricciardo actually fit enough for the US GP?
As Rosberg already doubted Ricciardo’s fitness ahead of the upcoming race at Austin, AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost also synced with the 2016 F1 champion. The latter revealed that the Honey Badger failed to complete a race distance in the simulator.
Nevertheless, the 34-year-old snubbed all of these to clarify his return to the grid. He said, as per PlanetF1, “It’s good to be back! My hand is much better, and the simulator was a useful way of assessing it.”
With this, he added, “I tried it in out the week before Qatar, but I didn’t feel it was at full potential, so I spent the rest of that week in the UK, spending more time in the sim, and got to a point where I felt ready to go.”
As there are 5 races left in the season, it will be the real test for Ricciardo, who is eyeing the Red Bull seat next year.
Can Ricciardo make it to Red Bull from AlphaTauri?
With both driver’s and constructor’s championships now over, the attention will now shift to the driver’s lineup for next year, which also includes Ricciardo. Nico Rosberg, the former Mercedes star, earlier revealed that if Sergio Perez fails to improve with Red Bull, there are chances that the Honey Badger might be moved to race alongside Max Verstappen again.
Given how mighty the RB-19 is, there are chances that the RB-20 would follow the same trajectory. In that case, Daniel Ricciardo would have higher chances of having a Grand Prix win in a Red Bull. But, that will be the case only if Perez does not adhere to the warning and misses out on the P2 in the driver’s championship.
