Hamilton wants Ricciardo more than a reserve role with Mercedes in 2023

Lewis Hamilton hopes Daniel Ricciardo can continue to race in F1. According to the Briton, a place as a reserve driver with Mercedes would be too little for the Australian. Ricciardo is keeping all options open for the time being.

Spare at Mercedes

Ricciardo is without a contract for 2023 and must look for a new employer. Alpine, Haas and Williams have been mentioned as possible teams for the Australian to race for in 2023, but a reserve role at Mercedes has also been discussed. Hamilton would consider it a shame if the eight-time race winner had to fill that role.

''I think he should be racing, personally. I think he's far too talented to... And he's earned the right to be amongst us all, racing. But of course, if he's a part of our team that would be great. But I mean, the third role is not really, I think, what's best for him. I was managing him, he’d be racing,'' said Hamilton on the FIA press conference.

The rumours are said to be linked to a possible retirement of Hamilton. If Ricciardo spends one year on the sidelines at Mercedes, he might be able to move into the spotlight when Hamilton's contract expires at the end of 2023. Lewis, however, has no use for those rumours and maintains that he is far from planning to retire from F1. ''I feel I can continue racing for a while yet.''

Ricciardo's options

Ricciardo does not want to immediately rule out a role as a third driver. ''The truth is I'm keeping every option open for, as I said, not only next year, but for the future. I still don't know what next year looks like. As Lewis said earlier, I do want to be on the grid, I do want to race. You know, I touched on a few weeks ago that, although this has been like, certainly a challenging time in my career, it hasn't taken the love of the sport away from me and that desire to still be here and still compete. So yeah, obviously many talks or thoughts about next year and beyond that,'' Ricciardo said.

Yet it seems Ricciardo will be without a permanent place on the grid in 2023. Alpine seems more focused on bringing in Pierre Gasly, at Haas the preference would be for Nico Hulkenberg and Williams has its eye on Nyck de Vries and Logan Sargeant. The price tag attached to Ricciardo combined with his recent performances make it not interesting for many teams to bring him in for 2023, but who knows, the tide may yet turn for the former Red Bull Racing driver.