Daniel Ricciardo surprised the F1 paddock a few months ago by making a stunning return to the grid. After being without a race seat for almost a year, the Australian replaced the recently sacked Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri. The Italian outfit’s move to sign the Honey Badger raised several eyebrows as the team is well-known to prefer providing opportunities to younger drivers via their young driver’s program. Amidst concerns that the team’s young driver’s program may suffer as a result of Ricciardo’s return, AlphaTauri CEO Peter Bayer has recently explained in an interview with Planet F1 why they signed the 34-year-old to the team.
While Ricciardo’s signing has helped AlphaTauri see an improvement in results, his return has been cut short following his recent injury. After just two full race weekends in Hungary and Belgium, the Australian has now fractured his wrist following his nasty crash into the wall during the second practice session of the Dutch Grand Prix.
After the early diagnosis of Ricciardo’s injury, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner revealed that the 34-year-old will miss at least three weeks of action. Horner noted that the Australian could return to the Singapore Grand Prix if his recovery goes as planned.
Even though Ricciardo has just competed in two race weekends for AlphaTauri, CEO Bayer believes that the former McLaren driver has already helped his team significantly.
AlphaTauri CEO explains why they signed Daniel Ricciardo
In a recent interview with Planet F1, AlphaTauri CEO Peter Bayer said, “That’s really what I’m trying to achieve, you know, to have an experienced one and a young one. Because then the young one will learn more from the experienced one, the experienced one will help us. And, for example, Daniel helped us tremendously on setting up the car“.
Bayer then added that while AlphaTauri gives the younger drivers feedback, experienced racers such as Ricciardo play a critical role in giving the team feedback. Hence, the AlphaTauri CEO believes that having both an experienced and a young driver in a team is critical.
While Bayer seems to have his reasons for signing Ricciardo, the Australian also raised several eyebrows by making a switch to AlphaTauri. Since the Italian outfit is currently the slowest team in the paddock, there are concerns about what the future holds for the 34-year-old.
Ricciardo keen on returning to Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo made his plans abundantly clear after signing for AlphaTauri a few months ago. In an interview with The Athletic, the Australian revealed that he was keen on using his time at the Italian outfit for the rest of this season to make a case for himself to return to Red Bull sometime in the future.
When asked about why he decided to move to AlphaTauri despite his wish to compete at the front, Ricciardo replied, “I knew it was going to be very hard to go back in at the top. Of course, that was my wish, but I think also you need to be realistic at some point“.
The 34-year-old then added that he believes that a move to AlphaTauri this season is “the best path at the moment” for him to return to Red Bull. The Honey Badger won seven of his eight races with the Milton Keynes outfit during his stint with the team between 2014 and 2017.
