Ricciardo towards a return to F1, in place of De Vries in AlphaTauri- Corriere.it

According to the Dutch media, Daniel Ricciardo’s return to Formula 1 is now over. The Australian from Red Bull, who returned to the Milton Keynes team this year as third driver and test driver, is ready to replace Nick De Vries on the AlphaTauri. Already in the Hungarian GP that will take place next week.

The young Dutchman pays for the results, zero points in the standings against the two of his teammate Tsunoda. He had been under pressure for some time due to mistakes and lack of performance. Ricciardo busy today and tomorrow at Silverstone with Red Bull for a test of the Pirelli tyres. Born in Perth to parents of Italian origins, Daniel had ended his F1 career with McLaren at the end of November 2022, the Woking team replaced him with rookie Oscar Piastri.

A fast driver with spectacular style, Ricciardo gave his best when he was at McLaren. In 2014, the year of the debut of the power units, he was constantly ahead of Sebastian Vettel. He won eight GPs in his career during the period in which Mercedes dominated, among the most beautiful the Montecarlo one in 2018. A complex period began that season, the growing rivalry with Max Verstappen (culminating in the Baku accident) pushed him to change of scenery and move to Renault. Difficult years, in a non-top team, before joining McLaren.

Where the hardships continue, Ricciardo seems different from the ferocious detacher we had come to know. Evil smile, jokes, nauseating drinks on the podium from the shoe, the famous shoey, invented by Australian surfers that he had seen the motorcyclist Jack Miller do. The honey badger printed on the helmet, an animal with a nice appearance but is actually very dangerous. He manages to take away the great satisfaction of winning at Monza in 2021 (in front of Norris) but it’s not enough to keep the seat. There was a period, around 2018, in which Daniel could move to Ferrari.

But apart from a few contacts, things never took off, and when Kimi moved to Alfa-Sauber, Charles Leclerc checked. At 34, Ricciardo would start again in Faenza, the team with which he made his F1 debut in 2011, then called Toro Rosso. To prove it all again. Could he also pose a threat to Perez who is performing much lower than expected this season (99 points less than Verstappen, and five consecutive qualifications outside the top 10)? Helmut Marko ruled him out at Silverstone, because Perez does well in the end in the race. Not like DeVries.