Daniel Ricciardo reunites with former team-mate en route to Hungarian GP

Jamie Woodhouse 19 Jul 2023 9:10 PM

Daniel Ricciardo wears a floral bucket hat in Canada.

Daniel Ricciardo is heading for Hungary as he returns to Formula 1 action, and he had former team-mate Lando Norris for company on his travels.

Ricciardo and Norris are two drivers very familiar with each other, Norris having served as Ricciardo’s most recent team-mate in the world of Formula 1 until his surprise return to the grid was confirmed ahead of the 2023 Hungarian GP.

With Nyck de Vries having struggled for form in his rookie F1 campaign at AlphaTauri, Red Bull decided it was time for a driver change at their sister team, giving De Vries the boot only 10 races into his rookie season.

That then paved the way for Ricciardo, who impressed Red Bull in his Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone after the British Grand Prix, to take De Vries’ AlphaTauri seat on loan from Red Bull for the remainder of the F1 2023 campaign, having served as their reserve driver this year up to this point.

And as Ricciardo heads for the Hungaroring to make his grand return to the F1 grid, he was accompanied by McLaren driver Norris, the pair all smiles as they prepare for respective race weekends where the pressure will very much be on.

The boys are back

:@danielricciardo #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/WOk5eHGMgI

— Formula 1 (@F1)July 19, 2023

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Ricciardo of course knows exactly what it is like to struggle to hit the performance level expected, having gone through that ordeal in his two-season stint with McLaren, his deal cut a year short at the end of 2022 as a result.

He now returns to the grid at the wheel of arguably F1 2023’s slowest challenger, the AlphaTauri AT04, with the Formula 1 world watching to find out if he is truly over those dark days alongside Norris at McLaren which at the time zapped him of his love for Formula 1.

Norris and McLaren meanwhile head to Hungary off the back of a mighty display at Silverstone, Norris having led the opening five laps of the British GP and scoring a P2 result on merit as the upgraded MCL60 thrived.

But now, moving on to the Hungaroring, a venue which features more slower sections, a traditional weakness of the MCL60, can McLaren prove that they are truly back among the top contenders of the Formula 1 grid?