Red Bull boss Helmut Marko quashes rumours of a Daniel Ricciardo racing return
The man who initially sparked the rumours Daniel Ricciardo could be making a racing return to Formula 1 has now hosed them down.
Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko last week gave struggling AlphaTauri driver Nyck De Vries - whose F1 career is only five races old - the upcoming triple-header in Italy, Monaco and Spain to show improvement.
But he has now ruled Ricciardo out as a potential replacement, saying he would likely choose fellow antipodean Liam Lawson.
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"We have spoken to De Vries and he is of the same opinion as we are - he has to improve," Marko told F1-Insider.com.
Daniel Ricciardo was last week linked to Nyck De Vries' race seat. Getty
"The gap to teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who is doing a great job, is too big."
Ricciardo was spotted undergoing a routine seat fitting at F1's last race meeting in Miami, where he went as Red Bull's reserve driver.
While the Australian's main focus is the senior team, his contract means he would be available to drive for the junior AlphaTauri squad should either driver be unavailable.
Ricciardo, whose three-year contract with McLaren was torn up with a year remaining at the end of last season, has insisted he would only return to the grid with a top team.
As it stands, the AlphaTauri is one of the slowest cars on the grid. The team languishes in ninth place in the constructors championship with just two points, courtesy of two 10th-place finishes for Tsunoda in Australia and Azerbaijan.
Helmut Marko has confirmed Liam Lawson would likely be De Vries' replacement. Getty
AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost — who will leave the squad at the end of the season — said it would be an "exaggeration" to say the team was satisfied with De Vries' performance so far in 2023.
His best results are a pair of 14th placings at the first two races of the year in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He is yet to finish ahead of Tsunoda this year.
"To use footballers' language, Nyck got the yellow card, but not the red one yet. If he improves, a change of driver will not be an issue," Marko said.
"If the worst came to the worst, we would fall back on our pool of young talent. We are talking specifically about Liam Lawson and Ayumu Iwasa.
"Ricciardo is not an issue."
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