daniel Ricciardo returns to the Australian Grand Prix this weekend with no automotive however nonetheless with a number of native fortify at Albert Park, as Melbourne prepares for its greatest weekend of the carrying 12 months and Formula One fanatics eagerly look forward to what’s being tipped because the “fastest race” in Melbourne ever”.
Ousted closing 12 months by means of McLaren and changed with fellow rookie Australian Oscar Piastri, the preferred Ricciardo will undergo the bittersweet revel in of staring at his house grand prix from the outer as his former crew combat to get off the bottom flooring in 2023.
McLaren is tied with AlphaTauri for useless closing within the constructors’ standings on 0 issues after two races and their season is already being written off as a crisis. Engine failure supposed Piastri could not end his debut in Bahrain and, even though the Melbourne rookie overtook teammate Lando Norris, McLaren nonetheless completed fifteenth.
The F1 season historically kicks off in Melbourne however this 12 months the 58-lap match would be the 3rd race of the 2023 calendar. A document 419,114 fanatics attended closing 12 months’s Australian GP, making it the largest carrying weekend in Melbourne’s historical past.
This 12 months’s speaking level is a resurfaced observe with some radical adjustments. Organizers have presented a fourth DRS zone, situated alongside the again of the circuit between Turns 6 and 11, and got rid of the chicane at Turns 9 and 10. The drastic reworking is fueling hopes this 12 months’s Australian GP would be the “fastest race in Melbourne ever”. “.
“You’ve were given the evolution of the vehicles from closing 12 months, and the fourth DRS zone method the vehicles might be sooner across the again of the circuit,” said Australian Grand Prix chief Andrew Westacott. ,[It] will obviously increase speed and therefore lap time and make it the fastest Grand Prix and the highest average speed ever in Melbourne.”
It’s good news for 21-year-old Piastri in his first home race as a Formula 1 driver.
“It’s a large privilege for me with the intention to race in no longer simply my house nation, however in my house town,” Piastri told reporters. “I grew up 10-15 minutes away from the circuit and could hear the cars back when they were loud enough back at home in the backyard, so for me, it’s really special. I feel super privileged to have the opportunity.”
Piastri is having a checkered debut season. In Jeddah both he and fellow driver Norris were forced to come into the pits by lap three to replace damaged front wings. McLaren’s rebuild has been chaotic, with new team principal Andrea Stella’s sacking technical director James Key and dividing the head design role among three people.
Norris has finished 17th in both races, accelerating speculation the highly touted 23-year-old Belgian-Briton could be in Mercedes’ sights when Lewis Hamilton retires.
That could open up a seat for Ricciardo in the 2024 season. As it stands, leaving McLaren might be the best career move he has made, with reports the 33-year-old walked away with a contract termination worth up to $24m.
Although he has rejoined Red Bull Racing behind the scenes, it will be a strange experience for Ricciardo to be watching and not driving. Ricciardo finished sixth here for McLaren in 2022, matching his 2015 result for Red Bull but failing to better his best result of fourth in both 2016 and 2018.
“This is the first year in as long as I can remember that my goals aren’t going to be 100% about racing and competing,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Aussie fanatics all the time carry a large number of power and I’m excited to peer the F1 fanatics in Melbourne.”
Speaking of his Red Bull go back, Ricciardo stated: “I’m back in an environment and ultimately a family that I have a lot of good memories with, and it feels really good to be back there. In turn that will develop my abilities, my confidence and my enjoyment behind the wheel.”
Ricciardo admitted it had been a “tough couple of years professionally” as he took a break from the mental and physical rigors of F1’s 23-race calendar. However, the exile he maintained from frontline F1 duties has not affected his competitive streak.
“There’s an element of that competitor in me wanting to remind people that I’m still here, still a professional and still contributing to success,” he stated.
Ricciardo has been busy with simulator paintings and advertising tasks. It incorporated riding a championship-winning RB7 F1 automotive round Australia as a part of the Red Bull Racing Road Trip sequence.
Ricciardo examined the RB7 in outback Broken Hill and down Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. In one scene, he outmaneuvers a helicopter herding him like farm animals. In some other, he’s buzzed by means of a fighter pilot as they race alongside the Sea Cliff Bridge close to Wollongong.
Ricciardo is joined within the video by means of Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen, off-road racers Toby Price and Daniel Sanders and aerobatic pilot Matt Hall, climaxing with a race towards Van Gisbergen at Australia’s maximum treacherous circuit, Mount Panorama.