Let's Talk Formula One Episode 3: What does the future hold for Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo?

Oscar Piastri, born just a month after Webber’s debut, has had a slow start to life in Formula One. His McLaren has been far behind expectations, and did not finish the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Webber is Piastri’s agent, and the duo made the controversial decision not to drive for Alpine this season and made the switch to McLaren. That decision hurt the French team, who put millions into Piastri’s development over the years as he became a Formula Two champion.

Since then, Alpine have secured the highly-rated talent that is Pierre Gasly, who likely would have taken the second seat at McLaren after Ricciardo’s departure at the end of last season. With Gasly and French team-mate Esteban Ocon behind the wheels, Alpine have picked up eight championship points in the first two races, with both cars in the top 10 last time out in Jeddah.

But McLaren, a team that up until recently had the best outside chance of challenging Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes for podiums, has fallen on tough times - making Piastri’s risk look badly calculated.

With no points, little chance of making Q3 in qualifying, and a 15th-place finish in Saudi Arabia looking complimentary to Piastri’s skill in a slow car, one must wonder whether the young Aussie is having regrets.

Meanwhile, Ricciardo’s decision to leave Red Bull to seek pastures new with Renault, Alpine’s predecessor, in 2019 looks in hindsight to be a career-killer.

The 33-year-old was a multiple Grand Prix winner at Red Bull, but was seemingly disgruntled at having to share a team with the up-and-coming Max Verstappen. His move to Renault yielded nothing but mediocrity, and his two seasons at McLaren produced an incredible win at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, but he was out-performed by team-mate Lando Norris and could never get to grips with the car.

Some suggest Ricciardo’s style of driving just was not suited to the low-rake concept (i.e the back of the car is at a lower angle, and the car is longer and more slender) ran by McLaren and seen since the regulation changes in 2022. He certainly seemed more comfortable in the high-rake Red Bulls of his heyday between 2014 and 2018.

Maybe he is a man who can not produce his best any more. However, it could also be the case that the culture and set-up at Christian Horner’s team just suits him better, and he can become a real force again. And that possibility has made Ricciardo a very useful man to have hanging around Milton Keynes.

Sergio Perez’s win at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix two weeks ago rekindled old tensions within the team that crop up any time Verstappen’s position as the number one priority is threatened. Perez hastily deleted a tweet which outlined his intention to challenge his team-mate for the 2023 F1 title, amid rising tension between the pair that created many flashpoints last season.

So how do you keep ‘Checo’ Perez in check? The answer for Horner it seemed was to bring back an old pal in Ricciardo in a move that signals to Perez that he can replaced if he falls out of line.

Whether Ricciardo is happy to end his career being used as a back-up option and disciplinary device remains to be seen. Getting a full-time seat in F1 is also very difficult, and with teams looking to find the next young hot-shot, there may not be room for Ricciardo any more.

But fans of the comically-inclined Australian will hope his time will come again, and a chance to hop into the RB19 should Perez or Verstappen be ill could rekindle his career.

But for the meantime, all eyes are on the Albert Park Circuit - and what happens within the Red Bull set-up will be key … especially if Perez wins again to stake his claim at Vertsappen’s crown.