Daniel Ricciardo will make a return to Formula 1 just eight months after his departure from McLaren to replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri for the rest of the season.
Ricciardo was left without a drive after McLaren chose to terminate his contract a year before it ran out, leaving the him to spend 2023 on the sidelines.
The Australian re-joined Red Bull to take up a third driver role with a view to trying to find a seat for 2024, although a drive at Red Bull has been written off by team principal Christian Horner.
Ricciardo took part in an official Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone on Tuesday driving Red Bull’s 2023 car, racking up his first milage in the RB19.
But the eight-time grand prix winner is to return to the grid much sooner than expected after AlphaTauri decided to axe De Vries after just 10 races.
This means Ricciardo will drive for the Faenza-based team at next week’s Hungarian Grand Prix and for the remainder of the season.
“I’m very pleased to welcome Daniel back into the team,” said AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost. “There’s no doubt about his driving skills, and he already knows many of us, so his integration will be easy and straight forward.
“The team will also profit a lot from his experience, as he is an eight-time Formula 1 Grand Prix winner. I would like to thank Nyck for his valuable contribution during his time with Scuderia AlphaTauri and I wish him all the best for the future.”
Hungary will mark Ricciardo’s first F1 appearance since last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and sees him reunited with AlphaTauri who he drove for in 2012 and 2013 when it was Toro Rosso.
“I’m stoked to be back on track with the Red Bull family!, said Ricciardo.”
Ricciardo’s arrival means De Vries is out just 10 races into the season having joined AlphaTauri off the back of his impressive stand-in drive for Williams at Monza last year.
The Dutch driver was under pressure to improve his performances following a difficult start to the campaign, but was consistently outperformed by team-mate Yuki Tsuonda.
