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Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer revealed that he had not completely written off the possibility of Daniel Ricciardo returning to the team.
The statement bears significance as Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri recently confirmed on social media that he will not be driving for the French outfit despite the team's announcement about the same.
Szafnauer referred to Fernando Alonso, who returned to Alpine last season after racing for the team between 2003 and 2006 in its previous iteration as Renault. The Spaniard went on to win two consecutive world championship titles within that period.
As reported by Motorsport, Szafnauer was asked about Daniel Ricciardo's potential return to Alpine, to which he responded, saying:
“I mean, if you look at Fernando [Alonso], for example, he comes and goes, and I think that happens to other drivers too. And I don’t think that’s an issue at all. I think what we need to focus on is, like I say, the plans that we have for the next 89-88 races. We’ve got to make sure that we complement that plan with the best driver that we can, and there are some options out there for us. And we put the best driver in next to Esteban [Ocon], so that we can move forward towards what we’ve been planning.”
It has been quite a chaotic 48 hours for Alpine with the silly season kicking off this week. In a surprise announcement, Fernando Alonso confirmed that he will be joining Aston Martin on a multi-year contract from the 2023 season onwards. This allegedly caught Alpine off-guard.
Within a day of the press release, the team announced that Formula 2 champion and Alpine reserve Oscar Piastri would be joining the team to partner with Esteban Ocon for next season. The 22-year-old, however, denied signing a contract with the team and confirmed that he will not be racing for Alpine in 2023.
Speculations suggest that Piastri will replace Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren and that the 33-year-old could potentially go back to Alpine. Given Szafnauer's comments about Ricciardo, this certainly seems to be quite a possibility.
Daniel Ricciardo "needs" the summer break after an underwhelming first half of the 2022 season
Daniel Ricciardo has had a significant performance deficit to his teammate Lando Norris over the first half of the 2022 F1 season. He admitted that "it hasn’t been a good six months," emphasizing that he is looking forward to the summer break.
In a post-race media interaction at the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP, the McLaren driver said:
“I need it. More so because it hasn’t been a good six months. But even if the season was going awesome, I think a break is still nice, just to get away. F1 these days, it’s intense. Even the hotels, they’re full of people and these kind of weekends are just so full-on that I think just getting away from the circus for a few weeks is going to be really nice.”
The eight-time Grand Prix winner has faced plenty of criticism for his lack of results this season. Rising speculation regarding his seat at McLaren has made his move to Alpine a highly probable happening.
