AlphaTauri wasted no time in announcing the comeback of Daniel Ricciardo once they had sacked Nyck De Vries after just ten races into the season. Red Bull claimed that they were impressed by Ricciardo’s pace in the Pirelli Tire Test. However, F1 journalist Edd Straw believes that Ricciardo’s lap times at Silverstone were not the reason but a justification for the move.
De Vries had a nightmare debut season with AlphaTauri. The former Formula 2 champion failed to get up to speed and was utterly dominated by his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. After failing to score a single point throughout the first ten races, it was inevitable that Red Bull would take a step regarding the Dutch driver.
Christian Horner says Daniel Ricciardo’s seventh lap in the RB19 at the recent Silverstone tyre test was fast enough to put him on the front row 👀
The Red Bull boss also believes Ricciardo sees his AlphaTauri return as a “pitch” for a seat in the main team for 2025… pic.twitter.com/dtCRirU5zt
— Autosport (@autosport) July 20, 2023
However, Red Bull also understands that sacking a driver midway through the season, especially when he’s a rookie, would always be challenging to justify to fans. Therefore, the Milton Keynes outfit used the tire test results to their advantage and tried to explain why they brought Ricciardo mid-season.
Daniel Ricciardo’s comeback was pre-planned
Edd Straw appeared on The Race F1 Podcast, where he spoke about how he refuses to subscribe to the story that Ricciardo impressed the Red Bull management during the tire test so much that they decided to give him a seat in F1. Instead, he believes that everything was pre-planned by Red Bull.
According to Straw, the management had already decided about the future of De Vries much before the tire test. However, the next question for them was who to replace him with.
This is Daniel Ricciardo’s world, we’re just living in it…📸🛴 pic.twitter.com/WvFk5qd0rF
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) July 20, 2023
Straw said, “This idea that Ricciardo impressed them so much in like the first dozen laps of the tire test, and it suddenly all happened, I think, is pretty naive.” He explained further, “I think they are using the tire test pace as a justification. Let’s not overstate the importance of that particular test.”
Ricciardo’s goals with AlphaTauri
It’s essential to notice that the tire test happened in a very controlled environment. Ricciardo will enter an actual race environment with AlphaTauri for the first time this weekend in Hungary.
Ricciardo has already made it clear that his goal with the Italian outfit is to make it to the top 10 as fast as possible. However, the Australian also has a broader plan: to make his way to the Red Bull team. For that, he would need to be on top of his teammate, Tsunoda, constantly.
However, the Japanese driver has shown consistency and a good pace throughout his time in F1. Therefore, beating Tsunoda will not be an easy task whatsoever.
