F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Rumors emerge of Ricciardo/de Vries swap at AlphaTauri

Nyck de Vries' disappointing results with AlphaTauri so far this season and a recent visit to Faenza by Daniel Ricciardo have led to speculation that the latter could be set to replace the Dutchman.

Ricciardo - who is assuming a reserve role with Red Bull this year and who will enjoy an outing with the team at a Pirelli tyre test in July at Silverstone - recently visited the AlphaTauri factory where he underwent a seat fitting.

The Aussie's presence in Faenza has fueled rumors regarding de Vries' future in light of his poor results.

But Ricciardo's seat fitting with the Italian outfit could also be construed as a mere necessity given that his reserve driver arrangements with Red Bull extend to AlphaTauri.

©RedBull

Theoretically, Ricciardo could be called up at short notice by either team should a driver become unavailable, hence AlphaTauri's seat fitting requirement.

Nevertheless, regardless of the hearsay, de Vries' track record year-to-date with AlphaTauri is a cause for concern.

The 28-year-old, who owed his belated entry into F1 to his remarkable one-off performance with Williams at Monza in 2022, has been consistently outpaced by teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

But several mistakes have also botched de Vries' copy. After finishing P14 in Bahrain and in Jeddah, he crashed out in Melbourne and in Baku.

And last weekend in Miami, he locked up at the first corner after the start and hit the rear of Lando Norris' McLaren, fortunately with little consequences for either driver.

In Azerbaijan last month, AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost said that he considered the Dutchman's mishaps and subdued results as part of a F1 rookie's "learning process".

"As I always say, there is a learning process and a crash period because, if the drivers don't crash, they don't know the limit," he said, quoted by Motorsport.com.

"This is a credit you must give them, otherwise it doesn't work. And there was no driver not crashing. I remember with Sebastian [Vettel] in the first races, he came back on the first lap most often without the front nose. That's part of the game."

Nevertheless, Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko will surely be attentive to de Vries' results in F1's upcoming Imola-Monaco-Barcelona triple header that will begin next week.

If no improvements are forthcoming for the Dutchman after the three races, there may well be a Honey Badger in the AlphaTauri garage come next month's Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, the scene by the way of Ricciardo's first career win in F1 in 2014.

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

37 mins ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

2 hours ago

Hamilton delighted with ‘consistently strong day’ in Vegas

Lewis Hamilton was particularly happy with his opening day of running at the Las Vegas…

3 hours ago

Verstappen stuck with 'draggy' rear wing for Vegas

Red Bull fears that its prospects for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix - which…

4 hours ago

Ferrari and Mercedes admit to plank changes based on FIA’s TD

Ferrari and Mercedes have both modified their car’s floor element in Las Vegas to comply…

5 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Hamilton continues on top in second practice

Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on top of the timesheets for the second time in Las…

5 hours ago