Red Bull News: F1 Team Outlines Daniel Ricciardo's Place in 2023

"Who can do it better than Ricciardo"

Helmut Marko, Red Bull advisor, has emphasised that the decision to sign Daniel Ricciardo as a reserve driver was not to put Sergio Perez under pressure. 

It was announced earlier this year that Ricciardo would be parting ways with the McLaren team. Once the news broke out there was a huge amount of speculation over where the Australian driver would go next. As weeks went on with no news of another deal, it became apparent that Ricciardo would not get a permanent seat for the 2023 season. 

Ricciardo previously drove for Red Bull between 2014 and 2018, and drove for their sister team Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) from 2012 to 2013, and he has returned to be the Red Bull reserve driver.

Since the return of Ricciardo was confirmed, many have raised questions over whether this could affect Sergio Perez's future with the team. Perez signed another two year contract with the team in May and Max Verstappen is in contract until the end of 2024. 

When speaking to Servus TV, Marko put down those rumours:

"Sergio has shown that he can ride at a very high level.

“If Max [Verstappen] is never there, Sergio will be. He won two races this year for a reason. We have to remember that we are a great team.

“We also have the largest number of sponsors on the grid. This means that we also have many commitments every year, such as car shows and roadshows in the United States.

Marko continued, referencing to Ricciardo's commercial events that he will take part in as part of his reserve driver role. 

“Who can do it better than Ricciardo with his smile, his 'shoeys' and I don’t know what else he has up his sleeve?

"If he has to replace one of our drivers he will. Then we will have a driver who we know will take the car to the finish line.

"But I repeat, it’s not that we want to put pressure on Sergio on this.”