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F1 pundit Natalie Pinkham feels Daniel Ricciardo has missed a major opportunity to replace Sergio Perez due to the former's injury.
The Australian made a premature return to the sport in the Hungarian GP as he replaced Nyck de Vries. His performances were decent, but he only got a two-race stint before injuring his wrist.
Pinkham, however, feels that if Ricciardo had been able to impress sufficiently at AlphaTauri, he would have received Perez's seat at Red Bull in 2024.
In an episode of the "F1 Nation" podcast, Tom Clarkson asked Pinkman about the dynamics at the Austrian team with Perez not performing as well as he should be. He said:
"Four Red Bull drivers on the grid, one isn’t performing as well as he should at the moment and that’s Sergio Perez. So I’m thinking, in the corridors of power in Salzburg, actually should Daniel Ricciardo step up to the big team, to Red Bull Racing, for 2024 leaving Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda at AlphaTauri?"
Pinkmen then spoke about the dynamics at Red Bull with Liam Lawson waiting in the wings, and Yuki Tsunoda performing well at AlphaTauri. She felt that if Daniel Ricciardo had not gotten injured and strung together an impressive run, he would have taken over Sergio Perez's seat at the senior team, saying:
"I think had Daniel not had that really unfortunate crash and had he come in and put in really solid performances for AlphaTauri, then that’s what would be happening."
Pedro de la Rosa believes Red Bull's decision to bring in Daniel Ricciardo was influenced by Sergio Perez's future
Former McLaren driver Pedro de la Rosa felt that questions over Perez's future forced Red Bull's hand when it came to trialing Ricciardo. He said on the "F1 Nation" podcast (as quoted by Racingnews365):
"What [Christian Horner, Red Bull Team Principal] said was very interesting. He said that after the Silverstone Grand Prix, there was a test. And Daniel, I think he said 11 laps, he did times capable of being in the top five on the grid for the British Grand Prix.
"I think that gave Daniel a chance at AlphaTauri given the fact they want to be covered just in case whatever happened with Checo. If they had no doubts that Checo would be close to Max, then they wouldn’t have taken Daniel, but the fact is they are not sure what could happen in the future."
Daniel Ricciardo is expected to return from injury in Austin. He will have five races this season to show what he can do in the car.
It will be interesting to see the decision Red Bull takes if Ricciardo does end up being very impressive against Yuki Tsunoda in these races.
