From the moment Daniel Ricciardo revealed that he intended to take a year off racing in 2023, his story has been dominated by one question: what are the odds that he gets back onto the grid in 2024?
Giving up a seat on the grid willingly is rare because of how difficult it is to return to the fast-moving driver market. It’s why reception to Ricciardo’s decision to take a break has been met with such lukewarm reviews among former drivers in particular — everyone wants to see him racing again, but the odds would appear to be stacked against his return.
But while Ricciardo’s aim is to return to Formula 1, he’s also made clear that it isn’t his priority, something he came to understand after being sacked by McLaren in August.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSDaniel Ricciardo says the prospect of being contracted to four different teams in six seasons was part of the reason he was turned off a possible Mercedes move for 2023.
Ricciardo confirmed last week that he will return to Red Bull Racing as a third driver next year, reuniting with the team for which he won seven of his eight victories.
He split with Milton Keynes at the end of 2018 for Renault, but in his second year with the French team he uprooted himself a second time to move to McLaren, where his career stalled off the back of two difficult seasons.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSRicciardo’s return to Red Bull Racing has begged two key questions.
The first one is: will this get him back into a race seat?
The answer to that will depend on developments in the driver market next season and especially on how Sergio Perez fares alongside Max Verstappen in their third year as teammates, as considered here.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSDaniel Ricciardo hopes a return to Red Bull Racing as a third driver will prove he can still be one of Formula 1’s top performers after two years of disappointment.
Ricciardo signed up to the non-racing role with his former team this week, confirming he’ll spend at least one season on the sidelines after more than a decade in the sport.
Ricciardo had forged a reputation as an intimidating late braker during his Red Bull-backed career and as relentless midfield hustler while at Renault, but his stocks plummeted after his switch to McLaren in 2021.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSDaniel Ricciardo is going home to Red Bull Racing.
Ricciardo’s return could barely even be called an open secret. Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko blabbed to German TV last weekend that the Australian would sign on as a third driver in 2023, and though team principal Christian Horner and Daniel himself denied the deal was done, both were forced to admit that they were very close to putting pen to paper.
This week the reunion was finally made official.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSSebastian Vettel has raced his final grand prix.
He leaves behind a mighty Formula 1 legacy of four world championships, 52 victories, 122 podiums and 57 pole positions — rare air any way you cut it and leaving an indelible mark on the sport.
But so much of that success has been front loaded. It’s been close to a decade since Vettel last won a championship, and the bulk of his race wins are a long way behind him.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSAfter 246 days, the 2022 Formula 1 season reached its conclusion with an Abu Dhabi Grand Prix full of small intrigues and big farewells.
Sebastian Vettel dominated Yas Marina off track on the final weekend of his Formula 1 career, but on the circuit it was Max Verstappen resumed regular programming after his Brazil blip.
The non-existent battle for first wasn’t the story of the race, however. That minor accolade belonged to the fight for second on the road and in the drivers standings between Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSMax Verstappen took a comfortable victory at the grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi ahead of a nail-biting battle for second place between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Verstappen controlled the race from pole with ease, managing his tires to perfection to make it to the checkered flag with a single pit stop when he’d originally intended to make two.
It was the Dutchman’s 35th career victory and extended his record for most wins in a season to 15.
Continue reading on RACERThe 2022 season is at its close, but before the sun sets literally and metaphorically on the campaign, there’s some unfinished business needing addressing.
The top three teams are arranged in pairs on the grid in championship order, but after a year of development, they’re all roughly within striking distance of one another. And given all three teams — and of course Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez in particular — have title skin in the game, this will be no simple dead-rubber fixture to end the year.
The same goes for the entire grid in fact. Only first and last in the constructors championship are set in stone, with all other places up for grabs.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSMax Verstappen lead Sergio Perez in a Red Bull front-row lockout for the Abu Dhabi grand prix.
Red Bull’s qualifying supremacy never looked in doubt throughout the hour-long session, the only hiccup in Verstappen’s run plan was his car suddenly switching itself off at the beginning of Q3, delaying him joining the session.
But the interruption didn’t perturb the Dutchman, who was in sparkling form in the final pole shootout of the season.
Continue reading on RACERSergio Perez led a Red Bull one-two in final practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a close contest with Mercedes.
In a quiet session in unrepresentative daytime conditions Perez set the benchmark at 1m 24.982s on a set of soft tires to beat teammate Max Verstappen by 0.152s.
Lewis Hamilton was a close third for Mercedes at 0.24s off the pace. The Brit set 17 laps for the session, among the most of any driver, as he sought to verify overnight fixes targeted at an unbalanced W13 on Friday.
Continue reading on RACERAnyone hoping for a repeat of the unpredictable São Paulo Grand Prix ought to reset their expectations.
With a regular grand prix weekend format at a well-manicured circuit with stable and predictable weather, Red Bull Racing was back at its best ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in both single-lap pace and during the race simulations at the end of second practice.
Max Verstappen, despite missing first practice to give rookie Liam Lawson a run, was right on the pace from the moment he jumped in the car for the twilight session, sweeping from minds the memory of Mercedes’s one-two finish in first practice — and the team’s strong result one week ago in Brazil.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSDaniel Ricciardo will rejoin Red Bull Racing as the team’s third driver in 2023, according to team motorsport adviser Helmut Marko.
The team hasn’t formally confirmed the news, but Marko told Sky Sport Deutschland on Friday at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that the Australian would be returning to Milton Keynes in a promotional and ambassadorial role next season.
“Ricciardo will be our third driver,” Marko said. “We have so many sponsors, we have to do show runs and the like, so of course he‘s one of the most high profile and best suited.”
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSMax Verstappen has ended Friday practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with he fastest time after rocketing to top spot in FP2 in Yas Marina.
Verstappen took control of the time sheet a quarter of the way through the session on his first soft tire run but improved that time twice more, including with another fresh set of tires, to secure top spot with a time of 1m 25.146s.
It gave him a 0.341s buffer over George Russell’s Mercedes, which was suffering significant cuts in engine power down the straights before switching to race runs in the second half of the session.
Continue reading on RACERA Formula 1 team comprises two drivers, but you sometimes get the sense that Red Bull Racing would do just fine with one.
For one, Max Verstappen has been so dominant this year that his points alone would be enough for third in the constructors championship, less than 100 points behind Ferrari.
But after all we’ve seen from the five-time constructors championship-winning team, having just the one driver would also save it a great deal of internal turmoil and embarrassment.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSSergio Perez edged Charles Leclerc at the top of the time sheet in the crucial first practice session for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Perez took top spot around 30 minutes into the session with an early switch to the soft tire, and his best time of 1m11.853s couldn’t be beaten before the end of the hour.
Leclerc came agonizingly close when Ferrari undertook its qualifying simulation laps near the end of the session, with just 0.004s splitting the Scuderia driver from taking control.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen dominated old rival Lewis Hamilton to win the Mexico City Grand Prix and break the record for most wins in a season.
The Dutchman got the perfect start from pole to hold the lead through the first three turns from George Russell and Hamilton, who started second and third but squabbled between themselves in the Red Bull’s slipstream.
Hamilton passed Russell, who was then demoted to fourth by Sergio Perez, leaving Verstappen to establish a 1.3s gap by the end of the lap. Hamilton kept him honest without threatening a pass, keeping him within 2.5s.
Continue reading on RACER