Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo is officially back on the Formula 1 grid, given a second chance in the Red Bull family after being sent on loan to AlphaTauri.
Ricciardo will replace Nyck de Vries, who has been axed after just 10 races, with immediate effect. His first race back will be in Hungary on July 23.
It means Australia has two active F1 drivers for the first time since the early 2010s, when Ricciardo was breaking into the sport and Mark Webber was finishing his career.
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Ricciardo drove this year’s Red Bull just this week, taking part in a tyre test at Silverstone following the British Grand Prix won by Max Verstappen.
F1.com’s Lawrence Barretto reported Ricciardo was so impressive in the test that his best time would’ve put him on the front row of the grid if he had entered.
“I’m very pleased to welcome Daniel back into the team,” Franz Tost, Scuderia AlphaTauri Team Principal said.
“There’s no doubt about his driving skills, and he already knows many of us, so his integration will be easy and straight forward. The team will also profit a lot from his experience, as he is an eight-time Formula 1 Grand Prix winner.
I would like to thank Nyck for his valuable contribution during his time with Scuderia AlphaTauri and I wish him all the best for the future.”
Ricciardo added: “I’m stoked to be back on track with the Red Bull family!”
De Vries, 28, was the 2019 Formula 2 champion but only got his shot on the F1 grid midway through the 2022 campaign, when he finished in the points on debut for Williams replacing the ill Alex Albon.
That audition was enough to get him into AlphaTauri’s second seat, partnering with Yuki Tsunoda, for 2023 to replace Pierre Gasly.
But De Vries has struggled mightily all season, sitting last in the driver’s standings and one of just two drivers without a point, alongside Williams’ American rookie Logan Sargeant.
De Vries has only finished above 14th once, a 12th place at Monaco.
His teammate Tsunoda has only scored two points, thanks to a pair of 10th place finishes, meaning Ricciardo will be returning to the grid in a way he initially tried to avoid – with a backmarker.
Ricciardo had options, including a move to Haas, after being dumped by McLaren midway through the 2022 season for compatriot Oscar Piastri.
However he opted to take the reserve driver role at Red Bull, returning to the group which led him into F1, impressing behind the scenes with his attitude and pace on the simulator.
Ricciardo said recently he had ended his self-enforced ban on not driving for a lowe-level team.
“I’m remaining open-minded,” he said of a possible AlphaTauri drive. “If it’s like, ‘This is you and you are signing a three-year deal and that’s the only place you are going to be’, then no, that’s maybe not the deal I would look for.
“But … if that creates a path to get back [to Red Bull Racing], then yeah, it’s something I would look at, because ultimately this is the place where I want to get back to.”
The move is a return to Red Bull’s second team for Ricciardo, as he was a test driver for its forerunner Toro Rosso in 2011, then debuting midway through the year with Hispania/HRT, before taking the full-time drive for the 2012 season.
He then took two years to be promoted to Red Bull proper, replacing Webber.
