In the usual Red Bull fashion, Daniel Riccardo replaced Nyck De Vries for the rest of the 2023 season with effect from the Hungarian Grand Prix. Here's why we think Red Bull management made this decision.
Daniel Ricciardo in the Alphatauri suit (L) replaced Nyck De Vries (R) at Alphatauri for the rest of the 2023 season from this week’s Hungarian GP.
Credit: Red Bull
Last year's silly season kicked off with Sebastian Vettel declaring his retirement from Formula One starting a chain reaction that led to Nyck De Vries replacing Alpine-bound Pierre Gasly. De Vries impressed the grid, finishing 9th in last year's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, standing in for Williams driver Alex Albon.
However, Helmut Marko has cast his spell to replace the Dutchman with Daniel Ricciardo at Alphatauri after just ten races.
It's not unusual for Red Bull to make driver changes mid-season and Nyck is just a recent victim of this. Here are the reasons why we think Nyck De Vries was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo.
Yuki Tsunoda (L) and Nyck De Vries (R) posing for fans before the British GP Qualifying
Credit:- Red Bull
Nyck has failed to score points in his time with the team compared to his teammate Yuki Tsunoda who has scored points on two occasions and just missed on plenty of others.
Nyck's best finish of the season came at the Monaco Grand Prix when he finished P12. Besides, Nyck De Vries made huge mistakes such as crashing twice during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend and then an incident with Kevin Magnussen at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Well in his defense this was his first season in Formula One and the Alphatauri has not produced a very good car, but mistakes like Canada are not supposed to come from drivers like Nyck, who has extensive racing experience.
Nyck had also been testing for various teams including Mercedes, Williams, and Aston Martin during the 2022 season.