Max Verstappen had to postpone his trip to Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to a tummy bug. What might have happened at Red Bull had Verstappen been forced to miss the competition while the Dutchman was still healthy enough to compete?
Although signing Red Bull as a third driver for 2023, Daniel Ricciardo was unable to participate in either of the season’s first two races.
This is not a surprise given that team owner Christian Horner already said that Ricciardo would attend “some races” in his new role, but it does make one wonder who would have filled in had Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez been unable to participate.
Due to a tummy bug earlier in the week, Verstappen was required to postpone his trip to Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
In the race on Sunday, the Dutchman was able to compete and advanced from position P15 on the starting grid to position P2, but team adviser Helmut Marko later acknowledged that the World Champion was “not fully fit.”
Horner explains the situation with the backup driver
During the race in Jeddah, Horner responded to a question from RacingNews365.com about Red Bull’s third driver issue by stating that Junior Driver Liam Lawson was there.
Lawson was already arrived, Horner stated.
“Obviously, Daniel Ricciardo is the premium choice, and he’ll be in Australia for the next Grand Prix.
“But we knew that Max was looking fine. We just wanted to give him a rest coming into the weekend, because he’d had a pretty rough week last week.”
After placing third in the 2022 Formula 2 Championship, New Zealander Lawson is now a Super Formula competitor. He also participated in Formula 1 Free Practice 1 sessions for Red Bull and AlphaTauri the year before.
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