Daniel Ricciardo has prompted talk of a potential Red Bull return after making reference to a "fairytale" ending to his Formula 1 career.
The Australian's last season as a starting driver for the team came in 2018, when he claimed two grand prix victories. He spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons with McLaren, but is back with Red Bull this term as a third driver.
Red Bull currently lead the constructors' championship, while Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez sit one and two in the drivers' standings. Despite questions over Perez's future with the team, though, Ricciardo's route back could end up seeing him work his way up through junior team AlphaTauri before securing a Red Bull drive.
"This for me would be like the fairytale," Ricciardo told ESPN. "Honestly, the fairytale ending [would be] to finish my career here if I could have it all my own way."
"But we'll see. I'll probably have to work my way up a little bit but it's really nice to be back here."
AlphaTauri sit at the bottom of the constructors' championships after eight races of the season. While Nyck de Vries is yet to get points on the board for the team, Yuki Tsunoda has a pair of top 10 finishes to his name.
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Red Bull's fast start in 2023 saw Verstappen and Perez exchange victories over the first four races of the season. However, while the reigning champion has opened up a gap at the top, his Mexican team-mate has fallen off the pace.
Verstappen has claimed four straight victories, but only one of those races saw him joined on the podium by Perez. The 33-year-old was only able to claw back a sixth place finish in Canada after a tough qualifying session, and is now closer to Fernando Alonso in third place in the standings than Verstappen at the top.
Formula E driver Oliver Askew fired Perez a warning during an appearance on the BBC's Chequered Flag podcast. "In motorsport there's a snowball effect and when your momentum is going backwards – for Sergio Perez that is the case – it's hard to stop that train,
"It doesn't help that his team-mate Max Verstappen is continuing to grow the lead to hand him the championship. It was just a couple of weeks ago where [Perez] felt like he was able to take the fight to Max and now he's within fighting distance of Fernando Alonso, so it's very difficult."
