AlphaTauri CEO Peter Bayer expects Daniel Ricciardo to complete his return from injury at this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.
After being dropped by McLaren at the end of 2022 Ricciardo was handed a Formula 1 reprieve when Nyck de Vries was dropped by AlphaTauri only 10 races into the campaign.
However, Ricciardo’s second F1 stint was cut short on just his third weekend outing when he crashed in FP3 at Zandvoort, resulting in him sustaining a break to his left hand.
Despite returning to the simulator ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, Ricciardo elected to delay his comeback date, missing out on a heavily gruelling race at the Lusail circuit.
But Bayer claims the entire AlphaTauri team is preparing for Ricciardo to be back inside the cockpit of the AT04 in Austin.
Asked if he anticipated Ricciardo driving in the United States GP, Bayer replied: “That’s definitely the plan. He was in the simulator on Monday. And he said that he could, you know, go almost until the end. But it was not 100%. And we didn’t want to rush things.
“And given that, again, on the other hand, we have this amazing luxury of having a top third driver who can jump into the seat, with Liam [Lawson], and so we together we decided to give him a bit more time and he should be in the car in Austin.”
Lawson has impressively deputised in Ricciardo’s absence, scooping AlphaTauri’s best result of the entire year to date with ninth place in Singapore last month.
But the New Zealander has been overlooked for a race drive in 2024, with AlphaTauri confirming that Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda will form the team’s line-up next year.
Bayer explained that it decided upon that pairing because the Faenza-based squad wanted to avoid fielding two young drivers in its pursuit of improved results.
Expanding on Lawson’s standout temporary spell, Bayer expressed: “Well, I think everybody will agree that, you know, his baptism in Zandvoort was incredibly challenging. And with, you know, the rain and the track being a difficult track and he mastered it, and he kept performing.
“He’s done an excellent job working with the engineers. You can hear him… Well, actually, you don’t hear him because he’s listening. And then he’s improving lap by lap. He’s a very quick learner. He’s fighting.
“And I really have to say, I admire what he did in Singapore. His car seemed to be double as wide as the others. And I called him Liam the lion afterwards, because I thought that was an impressive performance. And he keeps delivering, so very happy to have him on board as part of the family.”
AlphaTauri will be hopeful that the boost of Ricciardo’s presence can inspire it to climb the pecking order across the remaining five rounds of the 2023 season.
The Italian outfit is currently rooted to the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship with five points, seven points behind Haas.
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