Formula 1 will no longer see the presence of AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries after just ten races which was officially announced the week prior. The team shortly announced Daniel Ricciardo as his replacement, with immediate effect. The Australian driver was dismissed from the McLaren team at the end of the last season and continued to serve as the reserve driver for Red Bull Racing in the current season.
Ricciardo has a past with the Red Bull team and has been paired with Max Verstappen. The latter declared his thoughts on the recent incident by saying, “I would be ready to team up again with Ricciardo. I never wanted him to leave.”
He added, “We know that we get on very well, if Daniel does well where he is now, then of course he has the opportunity to go back up, so it is all open. On the other side, I am good friends with Nyck, so it’s also sad to see him go. But unfortunately, that’s how this world works.”
Max Verstappen on Daniel Ricciardo’s return to the Red Bull family:
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) July 20, 2023
“I never actually wanted him to leave.”
“We know that we get on very well, if Daniel does well where he is now, then of course he has the opportunity to go back up, so it is all open.”#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/8MUeML0qdJ
During the drivers’ press conference prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix, the two-time F1 champion confirmed that he would be delighted to have the Aussie by his side on the track once again. The prospect of rekindling their partnership seems to resonate positively with Verstappen, as he expressed his happiness at the notion of sharing the race track with Ricciardo once more.
Ricciardo and Verstappen’s Baku crash
The 2018 Red Bull lineup, featuring Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, was a volatile combination. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku was where the strained team chemistry came to a head. Verstappen resisted for a while as Ricciardo made several efforts to pass him before finally pulling it off. The Australian driver, though, was once again in last place as a result of Red Bull’s choice to favor Verstappen with an overcut strategy.
New footage from the Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo crash at the 2018 Azerbaijan GP. #F1 pic.twitter.com/OCWAaWy9Jv
— The Best Pinned Tweet! (@MrHemJ) May 12, 2023
Ricciardo openly blamed Red Bull management for the incident in the days following it. He added that his decision to leave Red Bull and join Renault, later on, was heavily influenced by the Baku race, and felt differently about the team following the incident, which left a lasting impression on him. Daniel couldn’t help but wonder how things would have gone differently if things had been the other way around.
During their stint at Red Bull from 2016 to 2018, the two drivers formed an unlikely partnership. In fact, recently, Daniel Ricciardo was lifting people’s moods on the track like he usually does by making fun of the Dutch driver. Their friendship revealed a distinct side of their characters that was uncommon in the brutal Formula 1 circuit.