Christian Horner says one driver outside Red Bull was ‘truly, truly impressive’ this year

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Red Bull Racing chief Christian Horner has admitted that AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo really impressed him on his return to the grid this year.

Horner was speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast off the back of one of Formula 1’s most successful campaigns.

His Red Bull team were unstoppable, only denied a clean sweep of wins by Carlos Sainz in Singapore.

Max Verstappen outclassed the entire field and it’s hard to see the Dutchman ever topping his dominance in 2023.

There have been a few question marks over his teammate Sergio Perez although he delivered the team’s first-ever one-two in Abu Dhabi.

His contract runs out at the end of next year and there will be plenty of drivers who fancy their chances in the quickest car on the grid.

One man who has been linked with the seat in the past is Daniel Ricciardo, who after being dropped by McLaren at the end of 2022 is now back racing with AlphaTauri.

Horner has admitted that he’s been impressed with Ricciardo this year, especially after his mid-season test in Silverstone.

It earned him his place with the Italian team as they dropped Nyck de Vries ten races into the season.

Now, Ricciardo has a full pre-season to prepare for arguably his most important campaign on the grid.

Horner admits he’s been impressed with Ricciardo’s return

Speaking about the Australian, Horner said: “Well it’s great to see Daniel [Ricciardo] back in Formula 1.

“I think it was something I was very keen to bring him back into the fold over the winter and when he came to us you could see he was pretty much done with Formula 1.

“He wasn’t enjoying it, but slowly that smile came back, that energy came back and certainly the test he did in Silverstone for us mid-season was truly, truly impressive and the work behind the scenes on the simulator.

“So, he deserved the chance in the AlphaTauri, he was unlucky then to break his hand in Zandvoort but I thought he drove very well this year.

“And most importantly, he put some engineering direction into the team with the experience he had and I think that really benefitted the AlphaTauri team.”

Ricciardo will be pleased to hear that Horner has been impressed with him this year.

He’ll know his ambitions of adding to his eight race wins are unlikely to be achieved while at AlphaTauri.

He first needs to outpace teammate Yuki Tsunoda who went from strength to strength in 2023.

The Japanese driver outperformed all three of his teammates this year and may feel he has an outside chance of a promotion to the works Red Bull team.

However, Ricciardo will know his previous relationship with Christian Horner is only going to benefit him going forward.