The Australian agreed to an early split with McLaren this year after the partnership failed to deliver the expected results.
After weighing his options for 2023, Ricciardo has finally agreed to become Red Bull’s third driver for next season as he eyes a full-time return to racing in 2024.
And while some have questioned whether Ricciardo has chosen the best path to stay in the limelight, McLaren CEO Brown believes it could offer him an immediate chance to show he still has what he’s got. it takes to win in F1.
He cites the example of former Mercedes reserve Nyck de Vries, who did such a good job replacing Alex Albon at Williams at the Italian GP that he landed a race seat at AlphaTauri for 2023 .
“Look what happened with Nyck with a good session,” Brown said. “All of a sudden it became hot property.
“So if any of these guys [at Red Bull] couldn’t run for some reason, and he [Ricciardo] jumped in and all of a sudden he took this car to where it is now, it can just turn in the blink of an eye.”
Asked by Autosport if the chance of a Red Bull exit was better for his prospect than having taken a full-time seat with Haas, Brown said: “It’s hard to say. In a sense, if you’re going to Haas and then you give it to [Kevin] Magnussen is a way to get back on the radar.
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
“The other is a [Red Bull] driver gets COVID, you are in a winning car, you go out to win the race and you are back on the grid. So I think it’s hard to say which one will create the best opportunity.”
Brown said he was surprised Ricciardo hadn’t been signed by other teams once it became clear after the summer break that he was available.
“I’m surprised that some of the other teams that were looking for drivers didn’t select him,” he said. “But I also think there were some teams he wasn’t interested in driving for. So maybe they would have selected him.
“But he clearly wants to stay in the game. He won Monza last year; eight races is a lot of races to win. So that’s in there, we just couldn’t unlock him. And hopefully in another environment something will unlock it, because I think we’d like to see Daniel on the grid.”
