May 26 Dr Helmut Marko has dealt a major blow to Daniel Ricciardo's hopes of a return to the very top in Formula 1. Although Australian Ricciardo, 33, will do some testing in Red Bull's 2023 car this year, Marko says he is not a candidate to actually race. 'Where is Ricciardo compared to (Max) Verstappen and (Sergio) Perez in the simulator? Not at their level,' he told formel1.de. The top Red Bull official, 80, refused to quantify the gap in terms of laptime. But he also seemed to dismiss any suggestion that Ricciardo was even a candidate to replace the struggling rookie Nyck de Vries at Alpha Tauri. 'Alpha Tauri is Alpha Tauri and Red Bull Racing is Red Bull Racing,' Marko insisted....
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