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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner recently claimed that Daniel Ricciardo is trying his hardest to get Sergio Perez's 2025 Red Bull seat. While the Australian has no chance of replacing Perez before 2025 (under normal circumstances), he has replaced Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri for the remainder of the season.
Sergio Perez is contracted with the team until the end of 2024, making it unlikely that Ricciardo will star alongside his former teammate Max Verstappen before 2025. However, the Mexican driver will have to prove himself during the remainder of the 2023 season and the 2024 campaign if he wants to preserve his seat with the team.
Speaking about Daniel Ricciardo on the F1 Nation podcast, Horner said:
"Daniel firmly wants to be pitching for that 2025 Red Bull."
The Red Bull team principal added that their line-up will remain unchanged for the 2024 season, but Ricciardo could be in contention for 2025. He said:
"We've loaned him to AlphaTauri till the end of the year. Obviously our drivers are going to be Max and Checo again next year but it's always good to have talent in reserve and I think Daniel is viewing AlphaTauri - he firmly wants to be pitching for that 2025 Red Bull seat. That's his goal and objective. By going to AlphaTauri, I think he sees that as his best route of stating his case for 2025."
Daniel Ricciardo's first simulator session with Red Bull was a disaster
Christian Horner also revealed that Daniel Ricciardo's first test with Red Bull after returning from McLaren was an absolute disaster. The Briton claimed that Ricciardo had picked up all sorts of bad habits but slowly found his pace over time.
Ricciardo failed to impress with the Papaya team and was regularly outperformed by his less experienced teammate Lando Norris. The eight-time GP winner made his way back to Red Bull to serve as the reserve driver behind Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.
Speaking about Daniel Ricciardo's first simulator session with the team post-McLaren, Horner told the F1 Nation podcast:
"He came in and drove the simulator the day after Abu Dhabi (2022) and it was a complete disaster. He picked up every bad habit imaginable. He was working with his previous engineer and 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."
It will be interesting to see if Ricciardo's simulator work has paid off at the Hungarian GP, where he will go head-to-head with Yuki Tsunoda and the rest of the grid.
