Purple Bull boss Christian Horner stated it’s clear Daniel Ricciardo’s “golden goal” is to interchange Sergio Perez a year-and-a-half from now.

Ricciardo has changed Nyck de Vries at Purple Bull’s second group AlphaTauri and can make his F1 comeback on the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 23.

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The Australian driver’s return has elevated the strain on Max Verstappen’s Purple Bull teammate Perez, who has didn’t make the ultimate qualifying session (Q3) on 5 consecutive events and has been on the rostrum solely twice since profitable April’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Perez has a contract till the tip of 2024 and sources have instructed ESPN he’s unlikely to get replaced earlier than then.

Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri race deal covers the remainder of 2023 and Horner has instructed the Australian driver has dedicated to a for much longer sport by way of returning to Purple Bull.

“In the intervening time there’s solely one thing in place till the tip of the season,” Horner instructed the F1 Nation podcast this week. “So there is no ideas or expectations past that. We have loaned him to AlphaTauri to the tip of the 12 months. Clearly our drivers are going to be Max and Checo [Perez] once more subsequent 12 months. However it’s at all times good to have expertise in reserve.

“I believe Daniel is viewing AlphaTauri… he firmly desires to be pitching for that 2025 Purple Bull seat. That is his golden goal. And by going to AlphaTauri, I believe he sees that as his greatest route of stating his case for 2025.”

Ricciardo instructed ESPN in June that the “fairytale” finish to his F1 profession could be a return to Purple Bull, the group he left on the finish of 2018.

He scored a handful of podiums over the following two years at Renault earlier than profitable the 2021 Italian Grand Prix with McLaren.

That victory was the excessive level of an in any other case unsuccessful two-year spell with McLaren, which led to Ricciardo returning to Purple Bull as its third driver — successfully the backup to Perez and Max Verstappen — this 12 months.

Ricciardo’s first style of Purple Bull’s dominant 2023 automotive was a take a look at at Silverstone after the British Grand Prix. Through the take a look at, the corporate confirmed the Ricciardo/De Vries swap.

As reported final week, sources instructed ESPN Ricciardo’s spectacular lap instances have been finally what pushed the motive force change over the road. Horner stated the efficiency at Silverstone was an enormous assertion.

“What impressed me essentially the most after I went up to take a look on the take a look at was — allowing for he hasn’t pushed this automotive, hadn’t been in a automotive for seven months — inside his third or fourth lap he was all the way down to a time that was inside a second of what our drivers have been attaining,” Horner stated.

“Then in his first correct run, because it have been, on tyres that have been comparable, you can see his confidence was rising and rising and that first lap on in all probability what was his seventh lap of the day would have put him on the entrance row of the grid. So it was massively spectacular.”