(K)nyck (K)nyck, who’s there? It’s Daniel Ricciardo!

What a crazy week it has been in Formula 1. While there was a quite eventful race only a week ago, the paddock, social media, news outlets, former drivers and virtually everyone else is only talking about one thing right now. The mid season driver swap at Alpha Tauri. In this newsletter, the F1 Summary will break down all the news, opinions and debates that have been sparked around the Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo’s return to F1. Keep reading to hear why this is big news, as well as what the F1 Summary thinks about the whole story.

Race News

• The British Grand Prix ended with some hard racing last Sunday, seeing Max Verstappen take home another win, joined by Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton on the podium. To read the full report, as well as all the reactions from the race, check out the F1 Summary race report here.

Team and Driver News

What is happening at Alpha Tauri? What has happened to Nyck de Vries?

• Nyck de Vries has lost his race seat at Alpha Tauri after just 10 races. The Dutchman has been struggling in his maiden F1 season, as reported by the F1 Summary last week, and had been warned by the team to step up his performance. However, few probably thought that he would not even get to the summer break to show his capabilities. After another lackluster race in Silverstone, where he ended up last on the track (albeit only 2 seconds behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda), the Red Bull sister team evidently lost their patience and decided to replace him with Red Bull reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo for the remainder of the season. De Vries himself has been silent since the news broke and has not commented as of yet. However, he was spotted having coffee with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff in Monaco on Wednesday.

• Daniel Ricciardo on the other hand has spoken out in a very short manner, and stated that he is “thrilled to be back with the Red Bull family”. The Australian driver was part of a pirelli tyre test on Wednesday, where he was driving the Red Bull car around the track of Silverstone, and he was reportedly doing very competitive lap times, which seems to have been enough to tip the scales in his favor in his quest for a race seat. Reports on him replacing Nyck de Vries broke only shortly after the test, fueling speculations that his performance on the track that day had an impact on the decision.

The F1 Summary Breaks Down the News

Why is this such a huge news piece? Isn’t Formula 1 highly competitive and if you don’t perform you always run the risk of being replaced? Doesn’t this happen all the time? Well, yes and no. There are several reasons as to why this driver switch has caused such debate. Here is a breakdown of a few reasons that make this story extraordinary.

• Yes, teams do replace drivers that are not performing all the time. Formula 1 is widely regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport racing. The teams spend up to $135m per year, they can employ over 1 000 people just to develop and race two cars. If the driver in one of those cars doesn’t deliver, then yes, you will be replaced. However, replacing a driver mid season is a rare phenomenon in F1. In fact, it is considered sort of a last resort, utilized only in extreme circumstances. That being said, there is one exception, the Red Bull team. While most teams in the paddock have swapped a driver mid season on the odd occasion at most, the Red Bull family of Red Bull racing and sister team Alpha Tauri (previously called Torro Rosso) can boast a (perhaps not so flattering) number of 8 times now. And that’s for a team that has only been around since 2005. So while at first it can seem surprising and extraordinary that Nyck de Vries was replaced mid season, we know from experience that if you are driving for Red Bull, it can happen. Or as former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas once put it: “There is only one team that does that kind of thing in F1”. Common or not, a mid season driver change is always controversial, and that is part of the reason as to why the story has been talked about so much in the past days.

• Moreover, Nyck de Vries was a rookie in F1. While the Dutchman has several other merits to his name, such as winning both the Formula 2 and the Formula E championships, he had only raced one race in F1, as a reserve driver for Willams, prior to joining Alpha Tauri. And it is commonly known, that hiring a rookie has to come with some degree of patience. Several former drivers have commented on the sudden decision made by Alpha Tauri, all claiming that 10 races is way too little for a rookie to get used to the racing and get up to speed. The fact that the team changed their minds so quickly has in fact sparked a debate questioning if perhaps the error was in the decision making process of hiring the Dutchman at all, rather than his rocky start of the season. A question that is further fueled by the fact that the other Alpha Tauri driver, Yuki Tsunoda has been given three seasons to get up to speed so far, which has not only been a straight road either.

• Additionally, while replacing Nyck de Vries is one thing, many were actually surprised by the decision of Daniel Ricciardo to take the seat at all. While the Australian driver has clearly stated that he would like to end his racing career at Red Bull, he has also been very clear about the fact that he does not want to drive a midfield car. In fact, there were those that believed that he was on track to replace Sergio Perez, who is driving for the mother team, Red Bull, instead. With that in mind, it did come as a bit of a surprise that he in fact accepted the Alpha Tauri seat after all, which is in many ways regarded as the slowest car on the grid. It is clear that the Australian driver wants more in the future, and while the immediate risk of being replaced should be averted for Sergio Perez, the message is clear. Start performing or be replaced.

• Lastly, while the F1 world is considered harsh and brutal, and while Red Bull are probably considered to be one of the most brutal teams of all in the paddock, the manner of Nyck de Vries’s exit has raised more than one eyebrow, even amongst the more seasoned F1 fans. A look on the Instagram page of Alpha Tauri shows a picture of Nyck de Vries and teammate Yuki Tsunoda waving at the British crowd on Wednesday. Only hours later, a post of a smiling Daniel Ricciardo enters the feed, with an announcement that he is replacing the Dutch driver for the remainder of the season. Furthermore, the Red Bull racing instagram account is suddenly flooded with Daniel Ricciardo content, in a manner of hours. The only comment made by the team regarding de Vries’s exit was a short quote by their team principal Franz Tost, where he welcomes Daniel and dedicates one sentence to thanking de Vries for his contributions. While we know that Daniel Ricciardo is a fan favourite, many fans have argued that a bit more respect towards the suddenly fired Nyck de Vries could have been in order.

F1 Summary Comments on the Story

So, what to make of this whole circus? Was it fair to Nyck de Vries to only get 10 races? Did Alpha Tauri make the right decision? This is the opinion of the F1 Summary on the matter.

• First of all, this is Formula 1. It’s the sport with some of the toughest, most high pressure situations in the world, and with the largest budgets and teams, all revolving around just 20 drivers. Each and every driver is always racing for their spot on the grid. They know it and they accept it from the start. As for Nyck, he has been racing under the same conditions as every other driver. Perform or be replaced. However, in our opinion, he happened to catch a bit of bad luck in his short stint as an Alpha Tauri.

• Say what you want, but he was unlucky that a top tier driver such as Daniel Ricciardo actually stood on the sidelines waiting for a spot to open up. Most teams have reserve drivers that are either up and coming juniors with very limited F1 experience, or otherwise discarded drivers that have found themselves without a regular contract. Very few teams, if any at all, have previous race winners just waiting on the sideline. If Daniel Ricciardo had not been around, there would probably not have been a feasible replacement for de Vries so fast, and the team would have had no choice but to give him at least to the summer break to prove himself. But as Daniel Ricciardo was actually available, a driver who has history with Red Bull, and who has won 8 races, the competition became harder than for probably any other driver on the grid, ultimately resulting in the very quick replacement of de Vries.

• Furthermore, the person who has actually been defending him during the season was the Alpha Tauri team principal Franz Tost. And having the support of your team principal as a rookie is not only important, but absolutely imperative. The problem for de Vries, however, is that Franz Tost announced his resignation in April this year. Additionally, it was announced that the Alpha Tauri team is to rebrand itself for 2024 and come even closer to the mother team, Red Bull racing. And although Tost is still the team principal for 2023, having his supporter slowly leaving the team did probably not help de Vries in his efforts to stay on. The fact still stands that prior to joining Alpha Tauri, de Vries had strong links to Mercedes, as he was their reserve driver last year and also still seems to have a good relationship with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. Daniel Ricciardo on the other hand is a Red Bull product through and through. With the team suddenly coming closer to Red Bull racing, the pressure would have increased massively on the Dutchman to prove why he should have the spot instead of a Red Bull driver.

• To sum up, the situation will most likely impact Nyck de Vries’s confidence, as well as his potential career in F1. But a big chunk of shade should actually fall on the Red Bull organization at this point. From an outside perspective, in this case, they do look a bit unorganized, unprofessional and quite frankly a bit like rookies themselves (which is rare to say about Red Bull). Especially Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has been quite open in the past few weeks, publicly criticizing Nyck on several occasions and even dragging Red Bull team principal Christian Horner into the media light by exposing his doubts about de Vries as well. All in all, while the replacement might well be the best decision for the team, one wonders if the whole thing could not have been handled more professionally and with a bit more of respect towards the involved parties. Additionally, since the team seems so eager to publicly air their internal discussions anyway, it could have been in good taste to also publicly admit that it was a mistake from their side to enter this driver contract in the first place, and not only for reasons that can be timed on the track. Only time will tell if the move was right or not, and while we are happy to see Daniel Ricciardo back, we also wish Nyck de Vries best of luck going forward.

Next Race

Coming up on the calendar is the Hungarian Grand Prix in on July 23. The race starts at 15:00 CET (full schedule here) and will feature fan favorite Daniel Ricciardo back on the grid. We will also continue to closely watch the McLarens to see if they can keep up their formidable form, as well as Sergio Perez who is desperately trying to prove his worth, especially in qualifying. Furthermore we expect a tight battle between the Aston Martins, Ferraris, Mercedes and McLarens who have all proven that they can fight for the podium on their day.

Picture of the week

Also part of the pirelly tire test earlier this week was former Haas driver Mick Schumacher. The German was testing for the Mercedes team, wearing his father Michael Schumacher’s old helmet.

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Best,

The F1 Summary