The 34-year-old Australian has been loaned out by Red Bull - for whom he was serving as third driver - to their junior team for the remainder of his one-year contract. Daniel Ricciardo will return to the F1 grid following his departure from McLaren at the end of the 2022 season; Nyck de Vries debut F1 campaign has ended after just 10 races; watch Ricciardo's return at the Hungarian Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 from July 21-23
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.
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.
A stint with the secondary outfit will put him in contention to do that in future and will increase the pressure on out-of-form Sergio Perez at Red Bull.
Sources have told ESPN that Ricciardo is willing to drive at AlphaTauri for as long as it takes to prove he is over his difficult spell at McLaren in 2021 and 2022.
The news was confirmed on Tuesday, while Ricciardo was conducting a tyre test for Red Bull at Silverstone.
Red Bull said a strong showing in that session was what made the move happen.
De Vries was hired by AlphaTauri to replace Pierre Gasly following Gasly’s departure to Alpine. De Vries started eighth and finished ninth while subbing for Alex Albon in Monza in 2022 and had won four Formula E races over the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
De Vries’ future has been up in the air for a few weeks after comments by Red Bull’s Helmut Marko made it clear that he needed to be faster. But it’s not like teammate Yuki Tsunoda is lighting the world on fire either. Tsunoda has two points on a pair of 10th-place finishes this season as AlphaTauri is last of the 10 teams in the constructor’s standings.
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