“That’s Still in There” – Red Bull F1 Boss Christian Horner Says He Would Sign Daniel Ricciardo If He Was Alpine Boss

The parable of the prodigal son is one where the son leaves his home as a result of his greed. When he returns having lost all he had, the father welcomes him back with open arms. Can Daniel Ricciardo get that treatment from Red Bull?

Fortunes at the Red Bull paddocks have been completely opposite. On one end is Max Verstappen who is storming through races and looks set to win his second World Championship.

Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez represents the other side; a great start which culminated with him winning at Monaco. His win at Monaco was completely unexpected. So was his decline from then onwards.

Perez won 4 podiums from the first 7 GPs including his win at Monaco. Consequently, he was offered an extension until 2024. Since he put pen to paper, he has 3 podiums in 9 GPs, with just the sole P2 at Belgium in the last 6.

Replacing Perez would be an expensive option but it is one to consider. On the list of possible replacements is Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian has had a disastrous season. His bad form since leaving Red Bull in 2018 has created a blot on his otherwise impressive CV.

Ricciardo now stands out of contract as McLaren is replacing him with compatriot Oscar Piastri for the 2023 season. The jovial 33-year-old has found no suitors in F1 yet.

But Horner has hinted he still remains a fan of the Aussie.

Speaking on Beyond The Grid, Horner said “I think I probably would [employ him if he was making decisions at Alpine]… I think he’s the type of guy and I think you could rebuild him… You’ve got to go back and think of some of the drives he did for us, the wins he had, some of the podiums, some of the overtakes. That’s still in there, I’m sure. Just needs a bit of reset.”

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The admiration for Daniel’s driving and abilities is not lost on Horner. While it is a far-fetched prospect, there is a sliver of a chance that Red Bull swoop in for the Aussie late in the summer.

Red Bull worked a lot on the new regulations changes

Red Bull won the title last year on the last lap. They left it as late as one can possibly imagine a title race to go. But this year is different. They look set to do the double with 6 races to go.

Responding to how they managed to deal with the new regulations, Horner said “We were probably the last team to transition on to the 2022 regulations. We went quite late on development in 2021 because when you’ve got a sniff on the Championship, we’d have kicked ourselves if we hadn’t done everything we could to try and win the Championship which meant compromising 2022.

The team did an incredible job to come up with the RB18 – which potentially is our most successful car ever… Tremendously rewarding for the whole team after all the effort.”

With the amount of flak Mercedes has received for the W13, Horner’s comments show the incredible task the development team at Red Bull had prior to this season. It also shows what a difference it can make when those moves pay off.

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Red Bull and Christian Horner have done a great job at bringing the team to its current state. However, it is tougher to stay at the top than it is to reach there. Horner will be aware of that.