Date set for Ricciardo’s first taste of Red Bull’s RB19 F1 car

The Australian, who returned to Red Bull as a reserve driver for 2023 after parting ways with McLaren, will drive the RB19 during a Pirelli tyre test in July. 

Ricciardo has mixed his time conducting simulator work alongside being at the track as a back-up for Red Bull regulars Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. 

But Ricciardo has now confirmed he will get his first taste behind the wheel of Red Bull’s race-winning 2023 challenger. 

“I’ve been in the simulator, but I will drive the RB19 in July after the Silverstone race – I’m getting a Pirelli test,” Ricciardo told ESPN at the Miami Grand Prix. 

“Then maybe I’ll get another one after Monza as well in September. A couple of months away [and] I’ll get to feel what it’s like.

“I’m certainly excited to drive a fast car, but also a car that maybe still feels familiar for me – it does a little bit in the sim. But I’m just excited to drive again and to just try to remind a team obviously I once had a lot of success with that I can still turn a fast lap.”

The RB19 has proved to be the class of the field in 2023, winning all five races and enabling Red Bull’s drivers to record four one-two finishes. 

Eight-time grand prix winner Ricciardo hopes his supporting role at Red Bull can help him land a full-time return to the F1 grid in 2024. 

“I’m definitely still in like a really good place – I’m very happy with this,” he said. “Does it mean that I’m happy doing this for the next two or three years? Probably not. But I think for this year it’s certainly a good thing for me.

“I do want to… Right now, I do want to get back on the grid next year. I do feel like there’s certainly some unfinished business. I’m staying like in the loop and staying prepared and whatever.

“I’m also ticking a few boxes that if I do get back on the grid next year, and I’m on the grid for the next, whatever, five years, for example, maybe there’s things that I won’t get a chance to do. I want to tick some boxes for myself for like some self-fulfilment.

“The New York marathon got mentioned. I had a few friends run it last year and I was like, ‘That looks pretty cool’. There’s these sort of things that I’m thinking about and obviously in a regular season I wouldn’t get the chance to do, so I kind of want to put myself out there and do some things like that this year.”

Later this year, Ricciardo will also take to the Nordschleife in an older Red Bull F1 car.