Christian Horner has moved to differentiate the return of Daniel Ricciardo from the F1 form slump experienced by Sergio Perez.
Ric made his return to the grid at the Hungarian Grand Prix for Scuderia AlphaTauri when the squad parted ways with Nyck de Vries after just 10 races.
That came as Perez was in the midst of a qualifying form slump that stretched back to the Monaco Grand Prix.
Having won two of the opening five races of the season, he’s finished on the podium just four times since while his world championship aspirations for 2023 have long been extinguished.
Such were the Mexican’s struggles that his position alongside Max Verstappen was beginning to come into question.
Hence the return of Ricciardo was seen in many corners as a way for Red Bull to hedge its bets and turn the screw of Perez at the same time.
However, speaking with Speedcafe, team principal Horner dismissed the connection between Ricciardo joining Scuderia AlphaTauri and Perez’s struggles.
“I don’t think so,” he said when asked if the two situations were linked.
“I was keen to bring Daniel back into the fold.
“We spent the last seven months rebuilding him and getting the old Daniel bank that we recognise from when he was last with us.
“It was always scheduled for him to do that tyre test and that was going to be very much a moment in time just to see where he was at.
“I think with Nyck struggling to get to grips with it, it just took on more relevance to give AlphaTauri some direction with an experienced driver.
“It seemed to make a great deal of sense, and after his performance at the test, it was a no-brainer.”
Ricciardo performed well on his return at the Hungarian Grand Prix, outperforming Scuderia AlphaTauri team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in both qualifying and the race.
A deleted lap in qualifying in Belgium saw him start from the back row of the grid, compromising his race, though there were further promising signs in the Sprint that weekend.
The return of Ricciardo has coincided with improved form for Perez.
He logged back-to-back podiums in the Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix, though was only eighth on the grid for the latter.
Perez remains second in the championship with 189 points, 40 clear of Fernando Alonso in third.
Formula 1 is currently in the midst of its summer shutdown, returning with the Dutch Grand Prix on August 25-27.
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