Ricciardo’s return will make Perez “check the terms of his contract”

Red Bull reserve driver Ricciardo has been loaned out to AlphaTauri to replace the under-performing Nyck de Vries, who has lost his seat just 10 races into his rookie F1 campaign. 

• EXCLUSIVE: How Ricciardo rediscovered himself ahead of F1 return with AlphaTauri

Ricciardo has made it clear that his ultimate goal is to secure a full-time race seat back at Red Bull, who he won seven of his eight grand prix victories with between 2014-2018. 

Just days before Ricciardo’s return was announced, the 34-year-old Australian told Crash.net at Silverstone that he would be willing to drive for AlphaTauri, providing it “creates a path” back to Red Bull. 

And Kravitz reckons Perez, who has failed to qualify inside the top-10 at the last five grands prix, will be left feeling uncomfortable if Ricciardo can produce “amazing” performances for AlphaTauri. 

"I think it makes Sergio Perez check the terms of his contract to see if it's as leaky as Nick de Vries' contract with Red Bull obviously was," Kravitz said on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast. 

"If he is amazing, then Checo will be pretty worried actually.

"Even though Checo brings a lot of sponsorship and there are a lot of merchandise opportunities, the selling of Red Bull stuff in Mexico to Mexican fans… he may well be worried if Red Bull decide to go the Ricciardo way If he turns out to be the man who turns AlphaTauri around.”

However, Kravitz also warned there is a risk that Ricciardo’s comeback could backfire if he fails to out-perform AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda. 

“It's a really tricky one because this whole plan of coming back could be scuppered by being no quicker than Yuki Tsunoda in a not good AlphaTauri," Kravitz said.

"But certainly, if he is, and he can score points on debut at AlphaTauri and is kind of the driver who can transform a car - this will be a good deciding value of how much is car and how much is driver won't it? This will give us an idea of that age-old question."