You Can Go Home Again: 12 F1 Racers Who Returned to Former Team

Daniel Ricciardo will return to Formula 1’s grid with AlphaTauri for the remainder of the 2023 season.

It will mark Ricciardo’s second stint at the team, having driven for it across 2012 and 2013, when it was branded as Toro Rosso.

Ricciardo is not the first driver to have signed up for a second spell at one team—Autoweek takes a look at some of the others, and how they fared.

Fernando Alonso (McLaren and Renault/Alpine)

Fernando Alonso’s career has included two stints at McLaren and three at Renault/Alpine.

Alonso’s first McLaren spell lasted only one year in 2007 amid a fallout with senior management before he returned across 2015-18, a phase marred by woefully uncompetitive machinery and dismal power units.

Alonso’s two world titles came with Renault, in 2005-06, and he returned for 2008-09 for a less successful spell after his McLaren divorce.

After two years out of Formula 1 Alonso and the now-Alpine team rekindled their partnership for a third spell, covering 2021-22, though it led to only one podium with Alpine entrenched in the midfield.

Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari and Sauber/Alfa Romeo)

Kimi Räikkönen secured a high-profile move to Ferrari in 2007, winning the world title, but he left after 2009 to compete in rallying when Ferrari recruited Alonso.

Räikkönen returned to Formula 1 in 2012, with Lotus, and two years later made a comeback to Ferrari. There was no title bid but podiums flowed and Räikkönen scooped one more win in red, in Austin, in 2018.

Räikkönen also had separate spells at Sauber to bookend his career. He spent his rookie season with the team in 2001 and returned in 2019, before retiring at the end of 2021.

Nigel Mansell (Williams)

Nigel Mansell earned a legion of fans racing for Williams in the 1980s but after two runner-up positions upped sticks and joined Ferrari for 1989.

That lasted only two years and for 1991 Mansell returned to Williams and was in the right place when the iconic FW14B arrived in 1992.

Mansell obliterated the opposition, winning eight of the opening 10 races, to seal the title five Grands Prix before the end of the season.

After a stint in Indy cars, Mansell returned for a handful of races with Williams after Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994, adding one more win in Australia.

Alain Prost (McLaren)

Alain Prost debuted in 1980 with McLaren but departed at the end of the year to spearhead Renault’s Formula 1 project.

He returned to McLaren for 1984, kick-starting a hugely successful six-year spell, which concluded amid the height of his rivalry with Ayrton Senna.

Prost won three of his four world titles with McLaren and his least lucrative year of 1987 still yielded a trio of victories and fourth in the standings.

Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri)

Pierre Gasly debuted with Toro Rosso in late 2017 and was drafted into Red Bull’s senior team for 2019 in place of Renault-bound Ricciardo.

But Gasly struggled alongside Max Verstappen and mid-season Red Bull wielded the axe.

Gasly was shuffled back to Toro Rosso and thrived, taking a podium in Brazil, before pulling off a stunning win for the rebranded AlphaTauri team in Italy in 2020. Another podium followed in 2021 before he moved to Alpine for 2023.

Nico Hulkenberg (Force India/Racing Point/Aston Martin)

Nico Hulkenberg is now a full-time Haas racer but had an on-off relationship with ‘Team Silverstone’ that stretched over a decade.

Hulkenberg spent 2012 with Force India, leading a rain-hit Brazil race before a collision thwarted his prospects, but moved to fellow midfield team Sauber for 2013.