Daniel Ricciardo put up an exceptional performance at the Pirelli tire test in Silverstone earlier this week, which paved the way for his F1 comeback. Christian Horner and Helmut Marko were impressed with the honey badger and decided to offer him the AlphaTauri seat. This meant that Nyck De Vries had to part ways with his $3,000,000 contract as he made way for Ricciardo at the Faenza-based outfit.
Ricciardo put up some pretty impressive lap times in the RB19 earlier this week. In fact, some sources pointed towards his times being good enough for a front-row start to the recently concluded British GP. However, these results could be taken with a pinch of salt, because Ricciardo performed well under a controlled environment.
Furthermore, the honey badger used the 2024 Pirelli tires, which is different from what the current drivers are using. However, as far as Horner and Marko were concerned, the 34-year-old did more than enough. Many people considered Ricciardo to be finished after his disastrous spell at McLaren but he proved them wrong by completing a comeback. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out for De Vries, whose tumultuous run in F1 comes to a premature end.
Behind the scenes when Daniel Ricciardo made his F1 comeback
In an article published by Nate Saunders from ESPN, the insights behind Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri appointment were brought to light. According to this report, as soon as Horner informed Marko about Ricciardo’s status in Silverstone, the Austrian decided to fire De Vries.
In fact, Horner gave Marko the green-light within just an hour of Ricciardo’s testing session. This proves that a decision in favor of Ricciardo had been building up for several weeks, which isn’t surprising, considering De Vries’ horrendous form.
De Vries joined AlphaTauri after impressing in a one-off race for Williams in 2022. But just a few races into this campaign, Marko admitted that signing him was a mistake. It seemed as though the 28-year-old had no support from his bosses whatsoever. However, De Vries got just 10 races to prove his worth in F1, which some argue is too short a time frame. Why did Red Bull pull the plug on his career so quickly, instead of being patient with him?
Red Bull wanted to stay ahead of others
As soon as Horner called to let Marko know about Ricciardo, several renowned journalists were made aware of the call and subsequently the decision. This is how the story of De Vries’ sacking came out on Tuesday, even though Red Bull didn’t want the news to break out so early.
In order to prevent the spread of speculation, Red Bull decided to go official and announce Ricciardo’s move to AlphaTauri. Initially, they planned on doing it over the weekend.
Interestingly, following his sacking, De Vries was spotted with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, at a restaurant in Monaco. This could mean that Wolff is ready to hire De Vries and bring him back to Brackley.
