Translation:
The comeback is perfect. The two sister teams Alpha Tauri and Red Bull officially confirmed on Tuesday (11.7.) that Daniel Ricciardo will be back in the Formula 1 circus in Budapest. The Australian was shown the door by McLaren at the end of last season. Now he is celebrating his comeback at Alpha Tauri. Nyck de Vries has to vacate his cockpit after just ten races in the premier class.
A tire test on Tuesday at Silverstone confirmed Red Bull's decision: "Daniel has lost none of his form in his absence. He was able to transfer the steps he made in the simulator to the race track. He impressed us on this outing," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner tells us. Alpha Tauri race director Franz Tost adds, "There's no doubt about his driving ability, and he already knows many of us, so his integration will be simple and straightforward."
De Vries and the rookie curse
It's the curse of the rookies. Modern Formula 1 doesn't give them any time. If you're new, you have to perform immediately. Otherwise the circus sweeps you off the track. In his ten races, de Vries didn't score a single championship point. He shares this fate with Logan Sargeant, the second of three rookies in the field. The only difference is that the U.S. driver is six years younger and did not come to Formula 1 as well-trained as the 2021 Formula E champion.
"Formula 1 is so complex that rookies should actually be given three years," Tost said as recently as the Austrian GP weekend in early July. Only one and a half days in the car before the start of the season. No testing during the season. Lots of street circuits. Six sprint weekends with only one hour of practice time. Highly complex engines. Tires with a mini working window. The changeability of the moody groundeffect cars. Plus a midfield where a tenth can make the difference between advancement or relegation in Q1.
"For a driver experiencing this so intensely for the first time, it makes the task incredibly difficult," Tost said at the time. "Sometimes it's 45 degrees on the asphalt in practice and only 35 in qualifying, which requires a completely different preparation for the front tires or the brakes. Nyck is making progress, but he needs time." The Austrian admitted in the same breath, "Of course we expected more from him."
Red card for De Vries
Actually - according to expectations before the season - de Vries was supposed to lead the racing team. He was supposed to maximize the package and guide the engineers on where improvements could be made from the driver's point of view. However, the Dutchman did not live up to this role. Instead, de Vries made too many mistakes. The series of accidents in Baku was the sad highlight of his season.
Bad luck for the 2019 Formula 2 champion: teammate Yuki Tsunoda has moulted in his third Formula 1 year. The Japanese is consistently faster. In qualifying, he was better placed in eight out of ten comparisons. In the hard-to-drive AT04, he still scored two world championship points. The weakening race car made life particularly difficult for de Vries. Alpha Tauri already turned his car to the left with upgrades. This hardly changed anything in the results.
In the end, it was not the outgoing team boss Franz Tost who decided de Vries' fate, but the management at Red Bull. And they are known for taking action when the performance does not meet expectations. As early as the sixth race in Miami, sports director Helmut Marko had spoken of a "yellow card" for de Vries. So now, just four races later, came the red card.
Ricciardo wants to return to Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo's management has been pushing for a comeback for weeks. The Australian was allowed to complete a tire test for Red Bull at Silverstone on Tuesday. It was the perfect opportunity to evaluate how good he even is after his more than mixed time at McLaren. "When he came back to us, we didn't recognize him," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said at the Austrian weekend.
"He has since found his mojo again. Daniel works hard in the simulator. He's provided valuable feedback there a couple of times," Horner said before the test. In the end, the impressions were apparently so good that the Red Bull management made the switch official immediately after the test laps were completed.
The question, however, is why Ricciardo agreed to the comeback at Alpha Tauri in the first place. With the AT04, even points are a complicated proposition. How should an eight-time GP winner motivate himself, who was said to lack drive at the end of his McLaren time anyway? The only logical explanation: Ricciardo could see it as a gateway to Red Bull. It won't have escaped his notice that Sergio Perez is weakening there. The Mexican recently failed to reach Q3 five times in a row.
Junior squad to be reduced in size
Every time Perez slips up, he is immediately called into question by the public. Yet he still has a contract up to and including the end of 2024. After the race in England, it was striking how much team boss Horner and sports director Marko backed him. "He rode some incredible maneuvers. His race to catch up to sixth place was really strong. If he can now get a grip on qualifying, he'll be back," Horner said.
Ricciardo's promotion is also a slap in the face for Liam Lawson. Red Bull has temporarily parked its up-and-coming driver in the Japanese Super Formula. According to Marko, Lawson has discarded the "hotheadedness" there that he was still guilty of in Formula 2. The New Zealander has won two of the five races so far. Alongside Ricciardo, he is the second substitute driver at Red Bull. Lawson has a Formula 1 superlicense. Now the junior driver has to go through another holding pattern.
Ayumu Iwasa, currently third in the Formula 2 championship, also had hopes of moving up to Formula 1. But promotion would still be too early for the Japanese driver. Recently, there were also rumors that Alex Palou could switch to the Red Bull camp. The Spaniard currently holds a commanding lead in the IndyCar championship. However, according to auto motor und sport, Red Bull's interest is limited.
More generally, Red Bull is rumored to be looking to reduce the size of its junior squad after the season - dramatically. It currently employs twelve junior drivers. There is talk of cutting back significantly for 2024. Red Bull only wants to invest in the really promising talents.