F1 Journalist Reveals Why Nyck de Vries Was Denied Shot at Redemption Due to Daniel Ricciardo’s Prolonged Injury

Sabyasachi Biswas | 30/08/2023
F1 Journalist Reveals Why Nyck de Vries Was Denied Shot at Redemption Due to Daniel Ricciardo's Prolonged Injury

Daniel Ricciardo sustained an injury on his wrist during the latest race weekend at Zandvoort, which compelled AlphaTauri to find a replacement driver. Liam Lawson, the Red Bull junior driver was called up for duty even though a far more experienced Nyck de Vries was in contention until the last minute. Now, F1 expert Christian Menath revealed the reason behind de Vries being snubbed in favor of Lawson, in the F1 Nation podcast.

Ricciardo sustained some serious injuries to his arm and is expected to be out for weeks. Even though such injuries take 12-14 weeks to recover in a normal human being, Ricciardo is aiming to make his recovery in time for the Singapore GP in three weeks’ time.

As revealed by Christian Horner recently, the Australian would look to return ahead of the race in Singapore. However, there’s still doubt if he can manage to do that given the track is very physically demanding. If that is the case, Lawson could very well get to compete in three races this season.

F1 expert reveals why Red Bull picked Lawson over Nyck de Vries to replace Daniel Ricciardo

During the podcast, Menath, a Motorsport Magazin journalist opened up on why AlphaTauri went for a less experienced Lawson over de Vries. He said that due to the longevity of the return, de Vries was not called up to the team.

Talking about this, he said, “I think if Daniel wouldn’t have had a major injury, then they would have probably put de Vries in the car. If they would have known it’s just that one race because de Vries knows the car, he probably knows the track a bit better.”

However, Lawson somewhat impressed the top bosses with his performance even though there were no huge expectations from him. This comes even though he didn’t have any preparation time whatsoever.

Liam Lawson fulfilled his AlphaTauri duty

Liam Lawson was called up to replace Daniel Ricciardo at the very last minute. The young driver from New Zealand had just one free practice before he had to suit up for qualifying on Saturday.

The 21-year-old qualified in P19, but finished in a much better position in P13, ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Even though his improvement was caused by the chaos that occurred due to rain, his result showed great promise.

With that said, Lawson now has experience under his belt. He will try to take that experience into the coming race, and push for points in the Italian GP this weekend.

Post Edited By: Somin Bhattacharjee
Daniel Ricciardo Liam Lawson Nyck de Vries

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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