Jenson Button: 'Game over' for Daniel Ricciardo if he takes up Mercedes' reserve driver role in 2023 F1 season

Jenson Button is not convinced that the role of a reserve driver at Mercedes is the best thing for Daniel Ricciardo. The 2009 world champion is part of the Sky F1 team this weekend and addressed Ricciardo's decision to join Mercedes as a reserve driver.

Button questioned what the motive of going to Mercedes as a reserve driver could be if Ricciardo doesn't even get to drive the car. He said:

“Being a third driver for someone of his calibre, it’s a very, very strange situation he’s found himself in. I don’t know what he would get out of being a third driver. He’s not a young driver, so he can’t drive the car next year in race weekends (free practice), it has to be a young driver. So he wouldn’t really get anything out of it. I guess he’ll probably think ‘well, Lewis [Hamilton] might retire and then I’ll jump in his seat’, but Lewis says he’s going to be around for five years. So he would be waiting a long time. So it needs to be the team where he thinks he can get a seat for 2024, otherwise, it’s game over because you get forgotten after a year in F1.”

Button also quashed suggestions that Daniel Ricciardo would be interested in moving to Le Mans as well. According to the former McLaren driver, Ricciardo is not at that point in his career and might even walk away from the sport if he does not get the right seat.

He said:

“Le Mans will be next year, with all the different manufacturers, proper exciting. You get in the door with a manufacturer as well, it could be a great future for him. But he’s not at that point yet, I don’t think, of thinking he wants to do something else. He might never do something else – like Lewis.”

---

Daniel Ricciardo admits he won't be part of 2023 F1 grid

Daniel Ricciardo revealed over the race weekend to Niharika Ghorpade of Sportskeeda that he will not be on the grid next season. He said:

“Yeah, to be honest. I mean the [Pierre] Gasly news, I was aware of, you know, I knew they were talking for a while and I knew they were very interested in Pierre so… I would say like that’s no, let’s say I was prepared for that and no surprise so. We are trying to, let’s say, navigate our way around that and figure out what was next.”

He further added:

“But I think the reality is now I won’t be on the grid in ’23. I think it’s now just trying to set up for ’24. I think that there could be some better opportunities then, so that’s really what all this confirms and now where the sights are set.”

Daniel Ricciardo was seen as one of the best drivers on the grid when he joined McLaren in the 2021 F1 season. His fall has been far too drastic to make sense of what has truly happened here.