Horner knows what Ricciardo wants: 'He wants to drive for Red Bull in 2025'

Ricciardo will drive from this weekend in the AlphaTauri seat originally held by Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman was sacked after 10 races, clearing the way for the eight-time race winner. Ricciardo's return was not an easy path, Horner says. After his first simulator session last year after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the surprise was great.

"I didn't recognise him anymore. It was a complete disaster. He had adopted every bad habit you could think of, working with his previous engineer [at McLaren]." According to the Red Bull team boss, they started working with the Australian and he got better every session. "He became more confident and was on the pace with racing drivers."

Ricciardo to Red Bull?

He left a big impression during the Pirelli tyre test. "It was very impressive. Bearing in mind he hasn’t driven this car, hadn’t been in a car for seven months, within his third or fourth lap he was down to a time that was within a second of what our drivers were achieving." Horner says that, calculated, his seventh lap would have been fast enough for a spot on the front row of the grid: "[When I told him that,] you could see almost the relief in his eyes and almost like the pressure release off his shoulders that he could still do it, that he wasn’t going mad and the old Daniel was still there."

So the Perth man grabbed the opportunity at AlphaTauri with both hands, taking one step back in the hope of taking two forward. "He wants to pitch for a Red Bull seat in 2025, that's his golden objective and he thinks this is the best route."