Mercedes ‘Not in a Position’ to Decide on 2023 Reserve Driver Role – Toto Wolff

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team have yet to who will be their test and reserve drive for the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, despite rumours linking Daniel Ricciardo with a possible move to the team.

Mercedes is losing both of their current reserve drivers at the end of the 2022 campaign, with Nyck de Vries joining the Scuderia AlphaTauri race team and Stoffel Vandoorne joining the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team as a reserve driver.

They have a potential young driver to use for their mandatory young driver free practice sessions for next season in Frederik Vesti, but they will be looking for someone with experience to fill the role of reserve driver.

Toto Wolff, the Team Principal at Mercedes, believes Ricciardo, who has lost his seat with the McLaren F1 Team for 2023 to his countryman Oscar Piastri, is speaking to a number of teams about a possible reserve driver role for next season, and no decision has yet been made to who will act in that position for the Brackley/Banbury based outfit.

The Team Principal believes Ricciardo’s former employers, Oracle Red Bull Racing, are also potentially looking at the Australian, but should Ricciardo join Mercedes, Wolff feels it would be ‘really advantageous’ to them.

“For us, we very much like him, he’s a great character,” Wolff is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.  “But we are not in a position yet to decide who is going to be reserve and third driver.

“I don’t want to put any rumours out there, because we haven’t decided.”