Favourite set to return

FORMULA ONE regular and fan favourite Daniel Ricciardo could be in ­ line for a swift return to the sport, but not with his former team Red Bull.

The Australian driver is having a year out of the sport as Red Bull’s reserve driver following the termi nation of his contract with McLaren after several poor seasons with the British­based racing team.

While some may have had sym pathy for Ricciardo given the McLaren car was never great and he was up against one of the most exciting talents in the sport in the form of Lando Norris, what Oscar Piastri is now doing in that car shows how much the vet eran had fallen off.

Ricciardo enjoyed a 12 in Formula One racing for several teams including Red Bull, Renault and McLaren where he won multi ple races and stood on count less amounts of podiums with all three of those teams.

Despite his spot as a reserve driver and talking about taking some time off and away from the hustle and bustle of an F1 track, he could be called upon to help out his former employer, Helmut Marko.

This is because Red Bull’s sister team, Alpha Tauri, are struggling and have experienced their worstever start to a Formula One season and their rookie driver, Nyck de Vries, is one of only two people to have not yet scored a single point.

De Vries has had countless spins and mishaps during his short F1 career and Helmut Marko is known for his ruthless nature when it comes to his drivers, having relegated people such as Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon out of Red Bull seats for not being up to

Marko has confirmed that Ricciardo will do some tyre testing for Red Bull this week and that could well be the litmus test that Red Bull needs to see as to whether or not replacing De Vries during the summer break, which is in just two races time, is the best thing for the team.