Daniel Ricciardo to replace Nyck de Vries at Alpha Tauri

After spending the first half of the 2023 season driving the Red Bull simulator, it has been officially declared that Daniel Ricciardo has his mojo back. The former ace had an opportunity to do a Pirelli tire test in a Red Bull at the Silverstone track on July 11th. He nailed it. According to some of those in attendance he put together lap times that would have landed him on the front row for the race that occurred on the previous Sunday. Red Bull boss, Christian Horner, immediately called Helmut Marko from the track to explain what he was seeing, and Marko made an immediate decision to let de Vries go. The Honey Badger is now set to make his return to F1 at the Hungarian GP on July 23rd.

Yes, Formula One teams can be brutal to their drivers. None more so than Red Bull, in conjunction with its sister team, Alpha Tauri (formerly Toro Rosso). In recent years, the pair have swapped drivers like Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon. Most notably, Daniil Kvyat was demoted from Red Bull to Toro Rosso mid-season to make room for Max Verstappen, who never looked back. Like Kvyat, Gasly was promoted to Red Bull, then replaced mid-season by another driver, in his case, Albon, who was eventually let go. Kvyat is out of the sport, but fortunately for Gasly and Albon, they managed to find second lives at Alpine and Williams respectively.

Sadly, for Nyck de Vries, his time is up without ever getting to drive for Red Bull. And, since he’s already 28 years old and has been around the block in other series, he may not get a second life in F1. His career in karting was stellar, and he even won the Formula 2 Championship in 2019, but there was no seat for him in F1. In 2020 he went on to Formula E and won the championship there. Then he became a Mercedes test and reserve driver, waiting in the wings for his chance. In 2022 he was awarded the opportunity to drive a Williams for an under the weather Alex Albon in the Italian Grand Prix where he placed ninth. All of a sudden de Vries was on the F1 radar, being pursued by Alpha Tauri and Williams. Ultimately, he chose Alpha Tauri because of its ties to Red Bull.

Unfortunately for deVries, Alpha Tauri has been unable to put a decent car together thus far in 2023 and de Vries has been unable to score a single point in ten races. That being said, his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, has only scored two, but the reason de Vries looked attractive to Alpha Tauri and Red Bull in the first place was that he was more experienced. With that experience, however, he was expected to hit the ground running. He did not. So, Daniel Ricciardo is getting a second chance, after a disappointing two years at McLaren.

Ricciardo spent five years driving for Red Bull and two years at Toro Rosso before that. After his stint at Red Bull, he spent two years at Renault and then two years at McLaren chasing after a team that could put him in contention for a World Championship. When he left Red Bull in 2017 they were still trailing Mercedes and Ferrari in the new turbo hybrid engine era. The Honey Badger was highly sought after and highly compensated during his career, until he hit a dead end at McLaren. In his two years there, he was never really able to understand how to drive the notoriously quirky car, and his younger teammate, Lando Norris, was beating him soundly. Ricciardo was let out of his contract a year early and finally forced to admit failure. But, when all hope was lost, Red Bull picked him up as a reserve and test driver for 2023.

Now, it’s starting to look like Ricciardo might get a chance to drive a championship winning car if he can impress Red Bull enough over the final twelve races of the 2023 season. If Perez continues to underperform, it’s possible he could be replaced by the Honey Badger next year. But that’s a long way off, and Ricciardo is going to have to start scoring points for the last place Alpha Tauri team immediately. While de Vries was under pressure, Ricciardo will be feeling it ten fold. He is a seasoned Formula One veteran who has driven for some of the top teams. If he is outperformed by his new teammate, 23 year old Yuki Tsunoda, it will most likely destroy any chance of his driving an F1 car again. And while he has impressed in the Red Bull, he doesn’t have much, if any, experience in the Alpha Tauri. It’s a tall order, but if anyone can survive the Red Bull meat grinder, it is the beloved Honey Badger, who will no doubt face the challenge with a big grin on his Aussie mug.