Yesterday, it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo will be replacing Nyck de Vries for the remainder of the 2023 season. But why was this decision taken by Red Bull’s advisor, Helmut Marko?
When Nyck de Vries won the 2019 Formula 2 Championship, he was considered to be a very exciting prospect. However, he was not able to get a seat in Formula 1 at the time. So he ventured to other areas in motorsport and found success. He won the Formula E Championship in 2021 with the Mercedes team. He also served as Mercedes’s reserve driver in F1 until 2022. Before the 2023 season started, Nyck was 28 years old already.
In 2022, Nyck had a stand-in performance during the Italian Grand Prix, replacing Alex Albon who was sick at the time. This was also his debut Grand Prix in Formula 1. During his debut, Nyck gave an impressive performance by scoring points on his debut with a 2022 Williams. This impressed a lot of teams.
BREAKING: Daniel Ricciardo to replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri for the rest of the 2023 season
#F1 pic.twitter.com/eD3J4TrjjI
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 11, 2023
Before any of the other teams could sign him, Helmut Marko decided that he could use Nyck’s experience to help AlphaTauri. We are now halfway into the season and Nyck de Vries has not scored a single point yet. He is only one of two drivers on the grid to not score a point. The other is Logan Sargeant. Hence, Nyck de Vries has been replaced by a much more experienced Daniel Ricciardo.
Why was AlphaTauri not patient with Nyck de Vries?
Although Nyck de Vries is a rookie, he is a lot more experienced than most rookies on the grid. He is currently 28 years old, which is older than almost half the grid. Given his prior experience and his performance with Williams last year, AlphaTauri did not expect him to perform so poorly.
Unlike other rookies, it will not make sense for the team to invest more time and money in a driver who is already 28 years old and not performing. Generally, when a rookie is not performing too well in his first season, he is given some time to settle into the sport and the team. If AlphaTauri does that with Nyck, he will almost be 30 by the time he settles in. This does not give him and the team enough time to develop and improve the car.
Nyck De Vries right now 😭#F1 #NyckDeVries #AlphaTauri
📸: @AlphaTauriF1 on TikTok pic.twitter.com/YKtfdliD1v
— MultiViewer (@f1multiviewer) July 11, 2023
A few weeks earlier, it was announced that AlphaTauri would rebrand itself once again. While the new name and colors of the team are currently unknown, it has been announced that the new team would copy as much as possible from Red Bull. Obviously, the FIA will have some regulations on how much they can copy another team’s design. But AlphaTauri intends to copy as much as legally permitted.
With this new branding, AlphaTauri will need a driver who is experienced and can give valuable inputs on the car’s design and performance. With Nyck de Vries still struggling with the car, he would not have been right for this role. Hence they went with Daniel Ricciardo. He has driven in Formula 1 for years, won 8 races, was a driver for Toro Rosso and Red Bull. The team will hope that he is able to understand the car a lot better than de Vries.
Will Daniel Ricciardo be an improvement from Nyck de Vries?
It is currently unclear as to which Daniel Ricciardo we will see in AlphaTauri. During his term with Red Bull. He was considered to be one of the best overtakers in the sport. We have seen him overtake 3 cars in one corner. However, over his last couple of years in the sport, we have been seeing a different Ricciardo. And he is not better.
After Daniel made his move to McLaren, he was never able to perform well, even compared to his younger teammate, Lando Norris. Ricciardo drove with McLaren for 2 years in the 2021 season. During both of these seasons, Lando Norris was able to outscore Ricciardo by huge margins.
The look on Daniel’s face… 😃 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Bo2C6hoJlq
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) July 11, 2023
Although Ricciardo had a contract to drive for McLaren until the end of the 2023 season, McLaren decided to buy him out of the contract. Following this decision by McLaren, Ricciardo signed with Red Bull as their reserve driver. After the British Grand Prix, Ricciardo tested the RB19 for the Pirelli tire test at the Silverstone Circuit. Apparently, his fastest time during the testing was good enough to secure a front-row start at the British Grand Prix.
Honey Badger 🤝 RB19
Danny Ric is back behind the wheel of a @redbullracing car for the Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone! 🤩#F1 @danielricciardo pic.twitter.com/buyxOvLYAH
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 11, 2023
After this, Helmut Marko decided to replace Nyck de Vries with Daniel Ricciardo. There will be some pressure from Helmut Marko for Daniel to perform in the remaining 12 races of the season. Ricciardo will be deeply involved with the team’s development for next year as well.
Let us see how Daniel Ricciardo performs with AlphaTauri at the Hungarian Grand Prix. We have seen him win in Budapest before. Will we see the old Ricciardo back or will he struggle to find the pace again at Budapest?