Ricciardo was brought in to replace de Vries. And no one familiar with de Vries was putting money on him going to the main team. He was brought in to be a safe pair of hands until Lawson or another junior was ready.

Do you think Lawson is now somehow more ready than last year when he temporarily replaced Ricciardo? RB used to throw drivers in the seat to see if they sink or swim. I very much doubt RB is waiting for their juniors to mature. If anything they're waiting for new regulations and Lawson getting the seat this year is probably something contractual rather than him being actually ready.

And if Ricciardo was a seat warmer than why wasn't he made aware of it? His final race clearly showed he didn't have a clue what happens now. If he's not sure about his future then he was probably offered something more than just seat warming. Also Ricciardo doesn't seem like the kind of driver who would sit in a back of the field team just to be in F1, otherwise he probably could've gone to Haas or something like that. He went to RB because he saw a way to get into a top team.

And Ricciardo already showed he wasn't going to play second fiddle to Verstappen, that's why he left in the first place.

5 years ago. A lot can and has happened in 5 years. And him leaving is precisely why he would return as the second driver. He already left because he couldn't be first and Verstappen is still there, so Ricciardo already knows that going back means he's number 2. He wouldn't go back if he wanted to be number 1 because he already knows he can't have that, which means him going back also means accepting the number 2 position.

Red Bull hasn't gone soft, this is kinda their MO. They did the same with kvyat, using him until a junior was ready.

Go compare Albons points in RBR to Perez. Albon in 2020 got half as many points as Max and got kicked. Checo is currently on track to end the year with a third of the points Max has and RBR doubles down to keep him next year as well. When I said RBR has gone soft I meant the main team. Checo has been a question mark since the end of last year and the RBE of old would've given him the boot half way through this season just to see if another driver could do better. That's what they did with Gasly.