Nyck De Vries has been dismissed by AlphaTauri for the remainder of the season and will be replaced by Daniel Ricciardo at the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s third-driver Ricciardo will henceforth make a sensational return to the grid after his brutal axing from McLaren at the end of last season.
“Scuderia AlphaTauri announces that Daniel Ricciardo will be joining the team on loan from Red Bull Racing for the remainder of the Formula 1 season, starting from the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix,” the team said in a statement.
“I’m very pleased to welcome Daniel back into the team,” added team boss Franz Tost. “There’s no doubt about his driving skills, and he already knows many of us, so his integration will be easy and straightforward. The team will also profit a lot from his experience, as he is an eight-time Formula 1 grand prix winner.
Ricciardo was in action at Silverstone just yesterday when he drove Max Verstappen’s British Grand Prix-winning Red Bull RB19 at Silverstone in an official Pirelli tyre test.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner remarked: ‘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.
“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.”
Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri advisor Helmut Marko spoke to media in late May on De Vries’s tough introduction to the sport, recognising he needed to improve in order to retain his seat.
Following those comments, De Vries would achieve a season-best result of 12th at Monaco but had since failed to challenge the top 10, leading to his brutal axing just ten rounds into his full-season debut.
De Vries is one of just two drivers who has failed to score points this season, the other being Williams rookie Logan Sargeant, and had come under increasing pressure.
De Vries’s departure indicates a shakeup is set to come at AlphaTauri for the 2024 season, with Yuki Tsunoda’s contract also set to expire at year-end.
Header Image: Red Bull Content Pool
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