Following his selection as Red Bull's third driver, Daniel Ricciardo has the opportunity to change the course of his Formula One career "on a dime," according to former manager Zak Brown.
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This year, the Australian and McLaren reached an early separation agreement after the collaboration fell short of expectations. After considering his options for 2023, Ricciardo decided to join Red Bull as their third driver for the next season as he plans to return to racing full-time in 2024. And although some have questioned if Ricciardo has chosen the best path to maintain his notoriety, McLaren CEO Brown thinks it might give him an instant opportunity to demonstrate that he still has what it takes to succeed in Formula 1.
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He uses former Mercedes reserve Nyck de Vries as an illustration. At the Italian Grand Prix, de Vries filled in admirably for Alex Albon at Williams, and as a result, he was offered a race seat at AlphaTauri for 2023. Brown added, “Look at what happened with Nyck after one terrific session. “All of a sudden, he was in demand. Ricciardo explained, “So if one of those guys [at Red Bull] couldn’t race for some reason, and he [Ricciardo] came in, all of a sudden he took the vehicle to where it is now, it can simply turn on a dime.”
When asked by Motorsport.com if his prospect would have been better off accepting a full-time seat with Haas, Brown responded, “It’s hard to tell. One way to sort of resurface on the radar is to go to Haas and then give it to [Kevin] Magnussen. The second scenario is when a Red Bull driver receives a COVID, wins the race, and then returns to the starting grid. Thus, I believe it is difficult to predict which will present the best opportunity. When it became evident during the summer break that Ricciardo was available, Brown claimed he was surprised that Ricciardo was not snatched up by other teams.
He stated, “I’m shocked that some of the other teams that were looking for drivers didn’t choose him.” But I also believe that there were other teams for which he had no interest in driving. So perhaps they would have chosen him. “He obviously wants to continue playing, though. Eight races is a big number of races to win, but he won Monza last year. Therefore, it is there; we just couldn’t unlock it. We’d like to see Daniel on the grid, so hopefully something will unlock it in some other setting.”
