Red Bull confirm 'brief' Daniel Ricciardo F1 return

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo made a "brief" Formula 1 paddock return at the Australian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo's surprise appearance at the 2025 season-opener marked his first visit to the paddock since parting ways with the Red Bull family after last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

The fan favourite was booted from RB after the race at the Marina Bay Circuit, with Liam Lawson having been given his seat with six races remaining. 

It ended Ricciardo's chances of a fairytale return to Red Bull to replace Sergio Perez, resulting in the Australian driver taking a complete step back from motorsport. 

Lawson was, ultimately, promoted to replace Perez; however, has been demoted back to Racing Bulls after just two races. 

Red Bull has promoted Yuki Tsunoda into the Milton Keynes-based team to partner Max Verstappen, due to the outfit insisting that it requires the Japanese driver's experience to improve the RB21.

Verstappen has complained on multiple occasions that the RB21 has several issues, whilst Lawson languished at the back of the pack. 

The New Zealander qualified in last for both the China sprint race and the Chinese Grand Prix, forcing Red Bull into making a shock change ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Following Lawson's demotion, Ricciardo's name was brought up by several F1 fans; however, Marko has insisted that its former driver was never an option to take the seat for Japan. 

"No, that was never considered," Marko told the Dutch edition of Motorsport.com.

"Daniel did his last race and has stayed away from Formula 1 since then. He was there briefly in Australia, but I think he was gone again on Thursday.

"This was never an issue."