Christian Horner says Daniel Ricciardo is eying a fairytale ending at Red Bull

Weeks ago, Daniel Ricciardo told RaceFans that a return to Red Bull would be the ‘fairytale” ending.

Now, thanks to an “impressive” test session at Silverstone, that dramatic final chapter is a possibility, according to Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner.

Speaking with the F1 Nation podcast, the Red Bull boss unpacked Ricciardo’s journey from Red Bull reserve, to AlphaTauri driver. As Horner outlined previously, it was not an easy road for Ricciardo, as Red Bull barely recognized the driver both physically, and performance-wise.

“I didn’t really recognise the Daniel, over the last couple of years, that we’d sort of grown so used to, that had grown up with us,” said the Red Bull team boss.

“He came in and drove the simulator the day after Abu Dhabi, or a couple of days after Abu Dhabi,” added Horner. “It was a complete disaster and he’d picked up every bad habit imaginable when he was working with this previous engineer.”

Ricciardo and the team went to work on repairing those bad habits, and the driver quickly showed improvement in each simulator session.

“Gradually we unpicked it,” said Horner. “With each session he just got better and better. You could see his confidence growing to the point that he was absolutely on the pace with the race drivers.”

As Ricciardo’s confidence was growing, AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries was dealing with his own confidence issues. De Vries was struggling in his first full season in Formula 1, and pressure was mounting. It began when Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko gave him the “yellow flag,” warning him to improve his performance on the track.

While that worked for a week, as De Vries posted his best finish of the season in the Monaco Grand Prix, his form slipped again, and the pressure increased on the driver.

With De Vries fighting for his F1 life, conversations began in earnest about Ricciardo taking his spot.

“Obviously before the test there was some element of discussion with Daniel to say, look, if this goes well, would you be up for driving an AlphaTauri because things aren’t quite going as we’d hoped with Nyck,” described Horner. “Would you be up for that challenge? And he [said] ‘yeah, absolutely’. He was prepared, if you like, to take a step backwards to try and take two steps forward.”

Still, Red Bull needed to see Ricciardo on the track and in the cockpit of an actual F1 car before making the move. The Silverstone test was always planned, according to Horner, but Ricciardo’s performance was not a sure bet.

However, during that test it did not take long for Horner to realize that Ricciardo was ready.

“What impressed me the most when I went up to have a look at the test was, bearing in mind he hasn’t driven this car, hadn’t been in a car for seven months, within his third or fourth lap he was down to a time that was within a second of what our drivers were achieving,” described Horner.

“Then in his first proper run, as it were, on tyres that were comparable, you could see his confidence was growing and growing and that first lap on probably what was his seventh lap of the day would have put him on the front row of the grid,” added the Red Bull boss. “So it was hugely impressive.”

As Horner describes it, he could even see the relief in Ricciardo’s eyes as the day unfolded.

“I was just pleased to see that he was still able to operate at that level,” Horner added. “You could see, I mentioned to him ‘that would have put you on the front row of the grid’ and you could see almost the relief in his eyes and almost like the pressure release off his shoulders that he could still do it, that he wasn’t going mad and the old Daniel was still there. And then his long runs were very impressive and the work that he did for Pirelli was absolutely on the money.”

Now the question shifts from “could Ricciardo return” to “how will he fare in that return?”

Along with the million-dollar question: “Will he be back in 2024, and where?”

The announcement of Ricciardo’s return, coupled with recent struggles from Sergio Pérez, particularly in qualifying, has led to speculation that Ricciardo could be in line for a return to Red Bull sooner rather than later. But both Marko, and now Horner, have poured some cold water on that idea.

At least for the immediate future.

“His position is not in danger at all,” Marko said following the British Grand Prix.

“He is second in the standings and delivers good races, which distinguishes him from Nyck de Vries,” added Marko at Silverstone. “At the moment there is no need to take action. There is also no one available to replace him.”

Horner addressed Pérez, and the future driver lineup at Red Bull, with F1 Nation.

“At the moment there’s only something in place until the end of the season. So there’s no thoughts or expectations beyond that,” said Horner. “We’ve loaned [Ricciardo] to AlphaTauri to the end of the year. Obviously our drivers are going to be Max and and Checo again next year. But it’s always good to have talent in reserve.”

But with Pérez’s contract with Red Bull up in 2024, is the door open for a Ricciardo Reunion?

The next few weeks could tell that story.

“I think Daniel is viewing AlphaTauri, he firmly wants to be pitching for that 2025 Red Bull seat,” said Horner. “That’s his golden objective. And by going to AlphaTauri, I think he sees that as his best route of stating his case for 2025.”