Ricciardo is Back! Nyck De Vries to be replaced at AlphaTauri

It's been rumored since the day Nyck sat in the seat at the start this year that Ricciardo was always on the back burner to take over if the Dutch driver couldn't bring the pace the team were looking for.

Daniel Ricciardo to replace Nyck De Vries at AlphaTauri

A very bitter sweet moment, as Nyck is only a rookie and deserved a longer chance to get used to the car and bring out his true potential. De Vries has won several races in Formula E and has real potential behind the wheel, but with him being one of the older rookies, with a lot of single seater experience, the expectations for his performance were a lot higher than what he was able to provide.

We all know Formula 1 is a cut throat sport, and nobody is safe in their seat, with the Red Bull family having an infamous history of being even more ruthless with their mid-season swaps.

Nyck De Vries driving for AlphaTauri at the British GP 2023 - Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images

Nyck hasn't had the brightest rookie season so far, constantly being out performed by his teammate and struggling to get the car through qualifying often starting quite a way down the grid from Tsunoda in equal machinery.

After his impressive one-off appearance in the Williams in 2022, it looked like he was a promising talent to bring in full time, but after just 10 races of his rookie season, Helmut Marko has seen enough to make up his mind and swap him out for the Aussie we all know and love.

The pressure is on for Daniel Ricciardo now though; if he can't out perform what Nyck was able to do in the first part of this season then his chances of staying in the sport long term are going to dwindle away very quickly. After a somewhat poor few seasons at McLaren, the 8-time Grand Prix winner was forced out of his seat at the Papaya team at the end of 2022 in place for fellow Aussie, Oscar Piastri. He was quickly picked back up by the Red Bull family as a reserve driver for the top team this year.

Close up of Ricciardo’s number three on the RB19 during a tyre test at Silverstone 2023

It will be great to see Ricciardo back behind the wheel, but it is a shame that Nyck De Vries has had his time in Formula 1 cut short so soon.