Daniel Ricciardo, the Red Bull reserve driver, has been moved to a race seat at AlphaTauri to replace the underperforming Nyck de Vries, who has been ousted from the team. The Australian, who has won eight grands prix, will take over at AlphaTauri with immediate effect and make his return to the Formula One grid at the next round in Hungary on 23 July.
AlphaTauri is Red Bull’s sister team and the move was described in a statement as Ricciardo going “on loan” for the remainder of the 2023 season. “I am stoked to be back on track with the Red Bull family,” the 34-year-old said.
Ricciardo previously spent two years with AlphaTauri, when they were known as Toro Rosso, in 2012 and 2013 prior to being promoted to Red Bull in 2014. He joined Renault for two seasons in 2019 and then McLaren for two seasons in 2021 but was let go by the Woking-based team at the end of 2022 after a series of disappointing results.
The move again demonstrates how blunt Red Bull can be when dealing with underperforming drivers and is a huge blow for De Vries, axed after only 10 races in what is his rookie season. The 28-year-old Dutchman came into the sport with high expectations as a Formula E and F2 world champion and had impressed when he stood in for Williams’s Alex Albon at Monza in 2022 and took ninth place.
However, De Vries has struggled this year. With a best finish of only 12th he has yet to score a point and has been out-qualified by his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. He was expected to show improvement after the team principal, Franz Tost, noted several weeks ago that coming races would decide his fate. He clearly did not do enough.
There had been speculation that De Vries’s seat would be offered to the Red Bull junior Liam Lawson, who is competing in the Japanese Super Formula series. Red Bull instead offering the drive to Ricciardo, and him accepting, comes at time when focus is shifting to a potential opening at Red Bull itself.
Max Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Pérez, is enduring a torrid time at Red Bull and his future too is now under question. He has failed to make Q3 for five races in succession and has repeatedly finished down the grid in a car capable of nailing one-twos in every race. He trails Verstappen by 99 points and is only 19 points in front of Fernando Alonso in third.
The team have publicly supported Pérez and he is under contract until the end of 2024. Nonetheless, given he is failing to deliver in the fastest car on the grid, there has been some frustration with his performances. Ricciardo will doubtless view this as a chance to make his case for a return to Red Bull. Equally, if the team are considering such a move, having Ricciardo race-ready and competing rather than on the sidelines would make sense.
The Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, said at the British Grand Prix that the team were still committed to Pérez. “He’s the type of guy that just needs an arm around his shoulder and you work with him,” he said. Tellingly, in 2020, Horner said of Albon, then also struggling at Red Bull: “We need to be patient with him and we’ll put an arm around his shoulder and make sure he feels he’s got the support.” Albon was replaced at the end of the season by Pérez.
Ricciardo conducted a tyre test for the team at Silverstone on Tuesday, which also impressed Horner. “It is great to see Daniel hasn’t lost any form while away from racing and that the strides he has been making in his sim sessions translate on track,” he said. “His times during the tyre test were extremely competitive. It was a very impressive drive and we are excited to see what the rest of the season brings for Daniel on loan at Scuderia AlphaTauri.”
