Daniel Ricciardo to Return to Paddock Thursday After Negative COVID-19 Test

The McLaren driver is poised to return on Thursday in time for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, the first race of the season.

He’s back. 

Daniel Ricciardo is poised to return to the paddock on Thursday after returning several negative COVID-19 tests, McLaren announced on Wednesday.  

“Daniel has been feeling better each day as he continued to recover while in isolation following local regulations in Bahrain,” McLaren said in a statement. 

Update from the team on @DanielRicciardo. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/rDqeYRlf6P

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 16, 2022

Ricciardo initially tested positive last week after arriving in Bahrain. He had begun feeling unwell from Wednesday onward, and McLaren confirmed the positive test result on Friday. It raised the possibility of a reserve driver taking the Australian driver’s seat for the season-opener, and it was rumored that Alpine reserve Oscar Piastri was expected to be called up in the event Ricciardo was not cleared to compete. 

With Ricciardo out for all of Bahrain preseason testing, rising star Lando Norris was the sole driver who tested for McLaren, completing 200 laps for the highest individual tally. However, there was a glaring problem for McLaren that became evident during Bahrain testing—brake overheating issues. The question is whether they can find the right fix before Free Practice 1 on March 18. 

“But it’s not a simple fix; it’s quite a complicated area,” Norris previously said, per Formula1.com. “It takes a lot of work, a lot of time to come up with these parts and so on and that’s why it’s the challenge to get it all here and in a good condition for next week.”