F1 team CEO admits he kept asking if he could hire 34-year-old driver during 2023 season

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AlphaTauri CEO Peter Bayer has admitted that he kept asking how things were going for Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull before he replaced Nyck de Vries last year.

Daniel Ricciardo ended up racing for Red Bull’s sister team on seven occasions after the Dutch driver was dropped 10 races into his AlphaTauri career.

Speaking to Motorsport-Magazin, Bayer admitted that he’s been delighted with the impact the 34-year-old has made since switching his reserve driver role for a full-time seat on the grid.

Earning a place in Formula 1 right now is virtually impossible, with teams seemingly less and less willing to take a risk on an unproven driver rather than working with what they’ve got.

The grid in Bahrain in March will contain the same 20 drivers who lined up in Abu Dhabi at the end of the 2023 season.

Daniel Ricciardo was the only man to earn a return to Formula 1 – although Liam Lawson showed during his five races as an injury substitute that maybe teams should be looking at young drivers more often.

AlphaTauri boss Peter Bayer has now suggested that Ricciardo was at the forefront of his thoughts leading up to the switch that saw De Vries lose his drive.

While, ultimately, the decision was made by Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, all parties would have needed to agree before making the swap.

In the end, although the car improved throughout the year, it’s hard to argue that it wasn’t the right choice.

AlphaTauri boss Bayer kept asking about Ricciardo

Speaking about the Australian driver, Bayer said: “It will stay that way. The partners mentioned represent the ecosystem. You can explain it using Daniel Ricciardo as an example.

“When I started, I always looked a bit and thought to myself: If Nyck de Vries doesn’t make it in terms of performance, then Daniel would be a great solution for us.

“Why? Daniel has experience, so he helps us with the setup on all the routes. Daniel is a real reference for Yuki [Tsunoda].

“He brought an incredible amount of new energy into the team within a week. Our mechanics were happy: Hey, wow, something is happening! The transition wasn’t easy, but at the end of the day it had such a positive impact.

“Originally it was said: No, Daniel is a reserve driver at Red Bull and it stays that way. And then over the course of a month, we actually kept asking how things were going.

“At some point, Christian Horner came to us and said: We’re doing the test at Silverstone, maybe we’ll take a look at it. Then Helmut said: Yes, why not?”

Ricciardo has ambitions to leave Bayer and AlphaTauri behind and return to Red Bull as a full-time driver before his F1 career is over.

If he’s going to do it, then he needs to have a strong start to 2024 when Horner will be considering whether to extend Sergio Perez’s contract.

There will be plenty of other drivers after that seat, but Ricciardo’s past experience with the team and Max Verstappen might give him the edge.

All he’s got to do is start delivering points for Red Bull’s sister organisation.