Ricciardo seen at Mercedes in Singapore: reserve driver in 2023 after all?

Ricciardo is due to leave McLaren at the end of 2022. The Woking-based team bought off the eight-time race winner's ongoing contract to put Oscar Piastri in the car in 2023. Ricciardo must now look for another place in F1, but possibly as Mercedes' reserve driver.

Ricciardo to Mercedes?

Rumours of a deal with Mercedes have been in the air for some time. Ricciardo is said to be in the picture with the team to be a reserve driver, after which he could possibly succeed Lewis Hamilton at the end of 2023 if the latter decides to retire. That Ricciardo was filmed walking out of the Mercedes building in Singapore only fuelled those rumours even more.

daniel ricciardo leaving the mercedes hospitality this morning, hhhhmmmmm pic.twitter.com/N5gRurIrcI

— ece (@ricciardopics) September 30, 2022

Furthermore, Ricciardo does not seem to have very many options for 2023 either. Alpine reportedly announced this week that Pierre Gasly will make the switch to the French team and Nyck de Vries will then replace him at AlphaTauri. Haas and Williams will then be the only teams with a spot left, but the question is whether Ricciardo feels like joining such a team? In addition, at Haas, it would be between Nico Hulkenberg and Mick Schumacher, where Williams is likely to opt for its own junior Logan Sargeant. So Ricciardo doesn't really seem to be in the picture at either team either.