Formula 1: 4 possible replacements for Daniel Ricciardo
By Ian Higgins
After Daniel Ricciardo fell ill with COVID-19 and missed the entirety of testing in Bahrain, who could step in for the Australian if he is unable to compete in the 2022 Formula 1 season opener?
Having missed all three days of Formula 1 testing in Bahrain only a week before the beginning of the start of the 2022 campaign, Daniel Ricciardo has yet again gotten off on the wrong foot in his second season with McLaren.
Uncertain whether Ricciardo will be fit to race come the first free practice session of the season this Friday, CEO Zak Brown and the Papaya may have to scramble to find a suitable replacement for their premier signing.
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Within a sport so sparsely strewn with opportunities, there will be rookies and veterans alike fighting to get into the unprecedented seat opening on the grid in Bahrain. We all know how valuable such an opportunity can be following George Russell’s perception-breaking performance running at the front in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix with Mercedes.
With that being said, McLaren started testing with the promise of being a front-runner, but they have fallen back after experiencing critical issues with front brake temperatures during their final testing runs.
The car was a handful in the hands of team centerpiece Lando Norris, so whichever driver takes on the challenge of the open seat will be wrestling the little-understood beast placed beneath him.
1. Oscar Piastri (Alpine F1 Team)
Publicly made available by Alpine, reigning Formula 2 champion Oscar Piastri is the first hope of many to get the opportunity in Bahrain. Dominating the competition in the most competitive feeder series in racing, Piastri showed wheel-to-wheel prowess as well as maturity beyond his years to accumulate and manage a dominant margin in the standings over his championship rivals.
Having lost out on the final seat of the 2022 grid to Chinese “pay driver” Guanyu Zhou, Piastri has been the obvious “next-up” for an opportunity in Formula 1. This was seen as the biggest nod of “money over talent” in recent memory, backed by Piastri’s 69.5-point margin of victory in his rookie campaign whilst Zhou was completing his third season and finished in third place.
Having been blocked by the forever competitive Fernando Alonso internally and by Chinese funding externally, there is no driver more deserving of showing his talent in Formula 1 machinery than Piastri, even if that is a one-off appearance to set the stage for the 2023 season.