“I never wanted him to leave”: Max Verstappen is ‘ready’ to team up with Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull F1 once again

Max Verstappen has revealed that he would like to be paired with former teammate Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull if he had a chance, adding that he never wanted him to leave the team in the first place.

Formula Passion quoted him ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, saying:

"I would be ready to team up again with Ricciardo. I never wanted him to leave. It's all open."

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were teammates at Red Bull when the latter joined the team in the 2016 season.

While the Australian had been in the team for a long time and had brought success, Verstappen's young influence was taking over the team with his talented driving, winning the Spanish Grand Prix that season.

The two of them shared a lot of moments throughout the years; however, things got difficult in the 2018 season. A lot of times, the team made decisions that Ricciardo thought were in Max Verstappen's favor, and he started to feel a certain bias from Red Bull.

Following the events of the Azerbaijan GP, when both drivers took each other out, it went South quickly. Ricciardo then made the decision to leave the team and join Renault in 2019. He later moved to McLaren but hasn't experienced the success that he did with Red Bull.

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Could Daniel Ricciardo reunite with Max Verstappen at Red Bull?

F1 Grand Prix of Hungary - Previews

Max Verstappen has been with the team ever since the 2016 season and has a long contract ensuring his seat till 2028. However, his teammate has been changed quite a few times since Ricciardo.

2019 saw Pierre Gasly debut before being demoted to AlphaTauri (Toro Rosso). He was then replaced by Alex Albon, who was later replaced by Sergio Perez.

The reason for all the replacements remained the same: failure to match up with the team's expectations. While Perez did amazingly well during the 2021 season and was equally good in 2022, his time in the 2023 season has been difficult.

He was leading the championship at the start of the season, but coming to the British GP, he has not reached Q3 during qualifying consecutively five times in the dominant RB19.

Sergio Perez prior to the 2023 British GP (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

It has been speculated that he might be replaced by Daniel Ricciardo, who returned to the team at the start of this season as their reserve driver.

However, Ricciardo instead replaced Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri and will be racing with the team from the Hungarian Grand Prix.

This performance by Sergio Perez has given enough time for speculation of his replacement to rise.

Ricciardo recently tested in the RB19 at Silverstone, and it was found that he was competitive enough. Even though he is in the AlphaTauri right now, there is no apparent information for the 2024 season.

It has been thought that if Perez fails to improve his performance, he might be replaced by Ricciardo at Red Bull.