Daniel Ricciardo was finally behind the the wheel of a Formula 1 car as he took Red Bull Racing's RB7 on a showrun last Sunday to entertain 30,000 fans in Nashville.
Ricciardo spent the early part of the 2023 F1 season in a Red Bull reserve role after losing his McLaren drive in 2022, but was handed an active driving role with AlphaTauri starting from the Hungarian Grand Prix replacing Nyck de Vries alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
However, the Australian's comeback lasted only two races (Hungary and Belgium), as he broke his hand after crashing during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort.
Ricciardo had to undergo surgery to sort out his injury, while Liam Lawson was given the nod to replace the injured Honey Badger at AlphaTauri.
Ricciardo's recovery took a bit more than expected, as he missed five races, Netherlands, Italy, Singapore, Japan, and Qatar, where Lawson grabbed his chance and impressed in his F1 debut, getting up to speed quite fast and even scoring points with a ninth-place finish in Singapore.
Red Bull and AlphaTauri insisted they did not want to rush Ricciardo's comeback to make sure he was fully recovered from his hand injury, but the upcoming United States Grand Prix in Austin was set as the race when he will be driving again.
Ricciardo has been doing some simulator runs in his bid to get fit for his return, and took it one step further as he jumped into the cockpit of Red Bull's 2011 F1 car, the RB7 and deliver a showrun for 30,000 F1 fans in Nashville, Tennessee ahead of this weekend's grand prix in Austin.
Ricciardo commented on the event: "Driving here in Nashville on Broadway was pretty wild. Broadway is normally wild in itself but especially today! There was a lot of ya’ll out here and it was cool to put on a show for everyone."
AlphaTauri has confirmed that Ricciardo will be driving for them in 2024 alongside Tsunoda, while Lawson was handed a reserve role with Red Bull.
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