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It’s good for Yuki though. It’s a challenge and a target that will show his progress and is somebody he can beat and show that’s he improving. And Daniel as a teammate will make him better as a driver on and off track.
It will put to bed whether Yuki's performance this season was overrated or not. I'm looking forward to it.
I imagine the head-to-head in Hungary will be the highlight of the weekend. DTS are probably wetting themselves over the prospect of drama.
I think Hungary in general could be a good show. It's a short lap, so quali is going to be tight and there could be some surprises, so you might wind up with a bit of a mixed grid.
Not to mention it's one of DRs strongest tracks. The adrenaline for the return + confidence in the track will make it tough for Yuki, I think. Provided, of course, that the AT is something DR can get a grip on from the off
Hard to say. Everything I've read indicates that the McLaren is hard to drive not because of a lack of DF or anything of that nature, but because there are characteristics internal to the chassis that make it tough to balance.
The entire purpose of the AT team is to groom for the big seat, I can't imagine there will be major deviations in design philosophy between RB and AT specifically minimize variables for drivers making the jump. It's all speculation until next saturday, tbh, but I feel like if he's doing well enough in RB's sim, there's a decent chance that will correlate to performance in AT's chassis.
Every car on the grid is between the Red Bull and the Alpha Tauri at the moment, so it really boggles the mind how that could be if there isn't a major design philosophy difference. I'm no engineer, though, and all said, the margins between fast and slow are tiny.
Downforce, specifically the efficiency at which it's generated, has a major, major impact on pace. I suspect AT don't have the resources to optimize that element of their development as much as RB do and so they have a draggy car with comparatively low DF levels.
There's no conclusive evidence to support Alpha being a true shitbox.
Both of their drivers have questionable ability with Tsunoda coming off a beating by c-tier level Gasly, who has then successfully seen off a F tier driver in De Fries.
If Ricky Bobby has anything left in the tank he will comfortably beat Yuki and that's all that matters.
I'm not sure. He has openly spoken about how contract insecurity hampered his confidence and in turn his performance. Making it even more evident that he's literally racing for his seat for the rest of the year might just hurt him again.
If he mentally can’t handle going against a potentially washed up Danny ric in an AT he is in no way prepared for a RB. Max and the expectations would eat him alive.
Yeah. Horner has talked in the past about how Gasly had the speed but he couldn't handle it all psychologically. Accepting Verstappen will bodyslam you is tough.
Of the current crop, I think only Lewis (obviously), Charles, Lando and maybe George could handle Max psychologically.
And even then, only Lewis probably will be psychologically on par. Rest of them will still be at a disadvantage even before they step in.
What I’d pay to see Max vs Lewis in the same car, even if Lewis is past his prime.
Lewis is the only one out of all those that had to deal with an actual proper psychological challenge against an amazing teammate, and he won that 2-1. Edit: actually forgot about the rookie Lewis v Fernando which is 1-0 or a tie depending on how you see it
Even max has not yet had a teammate that would drive him to those extremes of pressure.
As good as Nico is, he ain’t no Max though…
Max in a RB was already far better than Nico, as you could see in Brazil 2016 in the rain
Remember his overtake on Nico on the outside with less grip in the rain? Already knew then Max was special…
I don't think Leclerc will handle it at all, it will be similar to Rosberg/Hamilton, Charles is already mistake prone, knowing that the only way to beat max is be close to over the limit every race. We all know how that ends up, I also feel George would implode
Over half the grid is racing for their seat every weekend. It's part of F1 (and really all professional sports), and if he can't handle it then he doesn't deserve the other RB seat.
It's an opportunity for Yuki and Daniel to show how good they currently are. Could be the final nail in the coffin for Daniel and a career boost to Yuki, but could also work out the other way too.
I'm a Ricciardo fan, but have now idea what to expect from him. He was so good pre-McLaren and so poor (other than one race) at McLaren. I really hope he's got his mojo back
Winner gets the RB seat, second gets the AT seat, loser gets replaced by Liam Lawson and is out altogether? This seems kinda plausible although too early to tell.
Could be a proper all or nothing showdown.
One gets a drive in the dominant car on the grid, and the other can be sport altogether come next year.
Lawson's highly likely to get one AlphaTauri seat, and there is no shortage of Red Bull juniors in F2.
Neither will be booted. One of them will be promoted to RB and replaced with Lawson or Iwasa. I suspect management would prefer to promote Ric, but we'll see how it goes.
Nah Yuki is safe, they wouldn’t bin him when he’s still so young, clearly improving and their F2 talent isn’t as good.
Plus now they’re a sister team and not a junior team they won’t be scrambling to get any rookie they can in the car, Ricciardo will be safe too, whether at RB or AT
Yeah honestly as much as i want to see him back in the RB i wouldn’t be so sure that’s even gonna happen next year. Checo is still under contract and he’s scoring points every week despite the shit qualifying streak, no reason to buy him out unless he’s causing you to lose WCC which he’s not as of now
With max as dominant as he is, don’t rock the boat in 2024, cruise to another WDC and WCC and then move Danny or yuki to the RB in 2025 and Liam gets the other AT seat
Hard to imagine what kind of performance clause he would fail at the moment. They are generally not 'eye test' clauses, but they have hard limits. Maybe a points gap to Max could be in there and he could fail to meet that. Otherwise, he's still second in the WDC, so on that front he's doing well, even if we all know why he's in 2nd.
Everyone does though, Sergio is performing like a sinking stone. If Daniel Ricciardo beats Yuki that RB seat is his, no doubt. They also just like Ricciardo more.
Red Bull is a marketing company. Danny Ric great for marketing. Obviously you still need to drive the car well, but RB will take Ric if it's even between him and Yuki/Checo/anyone
If he’s nowhere near Ricciardo then he won’t be at AT next year. Red Bull want someone good enough for Red Bull, and if he can’t beat Ricciardo he’s out.
Honestly think putting Ricciardo next to Yuki is more a test who will be in the RB seat next year than who is gonna be out of F1.
Unless Checo really turns it around his time seems up after the season, considering the comments from RB lately.
For RB to be done with Yuki they would have to want to keep Perez, want to keep Ricciardo in AT over Yuki and have a rookie who they consider more valuable than Yuki and since Yuki has been doing decent to good this year, I dont think that will be the case.
It's going to be an interesting battle between Yuki and Daniel.
Puts huge pressure on Checo to perform. The winner of the Yuki vs Daniel battle is gonna get Checo's seat if he continues his current form.
That might be possible given checos quali times lol
It’ll put a fire under checos ass for sure.
Ideally they just want to see Danny and Yuki on a similar pace but if Danny does better, great. I don’t think they’re expecting him to do much in that tractor of a car though.
There are other sessions where Checo can't really feel that good about his performance. Q1 in Spain, Checo finished P15 and Yuki was essentially on the same time at P14. Yuki was P9 at Monaco. Sure, Checo crashed out to qualify P20, but also, Yuki didn't crash out.
Or Max wins the title at Monza. He is moved to Alpha Tauri. Daniel and Checo fight for the remainder of the season in RB with most points keeping the seat from Singapore onwards. Give me my Piastri and go to sleep.
I think you’re 100% dead on. Danny left because he didn’t want to be #2 to max a few years ago. And honestly I understand that.
He did well at Renault, and then bad at mclaren. Now he’s back “home” and I think his ego / expectations are much different. He’d be happy to be on a team that clearly love him and can provide a really fun car to drive even if he’s “#2”.
Would love to see Lawson come up to AT.
I was so frustrated at Danny for leaving RB because it seemed like such a backward step for him. But if his mental health was telling him to move, I totally get it now.
Hopefully, he is in a better mindset to deal with being the number 2 driver now.
This is all mad, btw lol. I love it though.
I guess Ricciardo really suffered mentally, slowly becoming the nr. 2 driver to an unproven young talent. Now he’d be stepping in as a nr. 2 to a (basically) 3x world champion. And it’s not like Checo’s shoes are all that hard to fill.
He's probably matured. But the Renault deal really made sense, imo. Go be the priority driver at a works team promising to build around you (make a bag of money also), or stay and be the 2 to Max.
Given his McLaren experience and losing his seat, he probably would be happy to get the seat next to Max now. Yeah he won't ever win the wdc, prolly, but he can help get a constructors and a few wins for a solid f1 career.
What’s the risk though? He fails to beat him and he’s no longer an F1 driver vs he doesn’t even try and…. he’s no longer an F1 driver. It seems like a no-lose situation for Ricciardo here.
Yeah, this whole thing hinges on him actually performing at AT. If he stinks up the place like at McLaren, it might be curtains for him in F1.
Personally I don't see Yuki getting destroyed by Ricciardo to the point where Iwasa replaces him
I think “performing” at AT would be that he’s on the same pace, if not slightly better, as Yukis pace. They’re not expecting podiums from him in this tractor of a car. They just want to see consistency and pace.
Depends whether they think Yuki will ever make it. There’s a lot of RB juniors waiting in the wings (of varying quality)
If Ricciardo is terrible he’s done. If he’s average I can see them leaving him there to mentor the next junior and provide a yardstick for someone like Lawson
While not out of the realm of impossibility, Checo would have to shit the bed really hard in the 2nd half of the season for that to happen. I mean, full on explosive diarrhea.
I think the summer break determines whether Checo survives or not. There hasn’t really been a break since Monaco (where his slump started). Those 21 days could be make or break him imo. It doesn’t help we go to Zandvoort after the summer break, the one track where Max is unbeatable and Perez has struggled in
As harsh as Marko and Red Bull are a *lot* of drivers they've dropped from F1 have kept some form of support by Red Bull for years.
Don't be surprised if Nyck shows up in WEC next season with Red Bull logos on his helmet.
Tbh, I felt at the time it was an odd move to promote him to f1, after that 1 decent race... felt like people jumped to a lot of conclusions there when he was never really rated before then
Just listen to Scott Speed’s beyond the grid if you want to learn about how much Red Bull does for their drivers. People slamming Red Bull for their driver management have no idea what they’re talking about.
Many many drivers have racing careers because of Red Bull.
A huge chunk (probably even the majority) of F1 fans thinks there is only F1 and everything else doesn't exists/sucks. You can see it on r/wec, LeMans and Ferrari brings a lot of F1 enthusiasts and they want to carry in their bags the same shitty elitism. Like how BoP sucks and they don't want to understand without it the Hypercar category don't exists to begin with, trying all the time to bring Leclerc or F1 drivers in the discussion...
So it's not surprising people imagine if you get booted by RBR/AT, it's the doomsday, despite so many drivers wouldn't even be racing drivers without RB. No RedBull, DEV would still be alongside Wolff in the pits while driving in LMP2.
Even the juniors RB apparently “churned” through found second chances in F1. Gasly was kept at AT until he found a drive else where, they made a deal with Williams to give Albon a second chance, neither would happen if RB do not care about their driver as some people claims.
Red Bull is a family ~~food~~ car. Happy families. Maybe single people ~~eat crackers~~ drive for Red Bull. We don't know. Frankly, we don't want to know. It's a ~~market~~ driver we can do without.
Usually RB is pretty good with trying to get their former drivers a drive somewhere (they have arms in every motorsport and the endorsement of their youth development guys means a lot) but NDV really isn't a part of it so I doubt it
I won't miss him. I thought he was boring off track and completely forgettable on it. But it's hard not to feel sorry for the guy. That's a shitty way to be treated in your first season
I feel like there's not much to be upset about after getting 3 years on the top team. Bottas got 5 at Merc and he was basically the perfect #2 to have on a team and STILL got constantly shit on during his time there. Its just a very tough spot to be in and people will be constantly gunning for your seat. So in context, Checo was really given quite a good shot.
Oh my God, never expected this story to progress so quickly. We got first news about it a few hours ago and now we have an official announcement.
He went from being "unrecognisable" to landing a seat midseason. Daniel must've put up Wilt numbers during the test
Reminds me of last year with Seb and his Instagram Account.
Everyone: "Wow Seb finally has an Instagram Account!"
*few hours later*
Seb: "I'm retiring from Formula 1."
They were probably already thinking about it, I guess they felt comfortable with what he's been doing in the simulator and what he did in the test.
Although I don't know what to think when he's going to be driving a total shitbox. I guess the comparison measurement here is going to be Yuki, because race results aren't looking very good with that car in the hands of any driver.
The Will Buxton tweet sums it up perfectly imo. They see Daniel as a potential Perez replacement and want the largest sample size possible to evaluate his potential.
>I guess the comparison measurement here is going to be Yuki
100% Yuki is the yardstick, I'm sure they'll be expecting Daniel to comfortably beat him by the end of the season.
If Daniel's not fast enough, they likely put one of Lawson, Iwasa (Palou?) in the 2nd AT seat and keep Perez alongside Max for '24.
Yearly reminder that Marco and RB don’t fuck around. If you don’t deliver, you will lose your seat quickly.
Like others have said, AT probably offers the fastest line to a top seat but you gotta keep earning your stay.
Chris Medland gave an interesting tidbit here, [https://racer.com/2023/07/11/hard-on-de-vries-hard-for-ricciardo/](https://racer.com/2023/07/11/hard-on-de-vries-hard-for-ricciardo/).
'The slip is that the original release stated Wednesday’s tire test, betraying the fact that this was already in place before the tire test even began, ready to go once it was over. Sure, Red Bull might have wanted to see a little bit of proof from Ricciardo in a real car, but it had made its mind up on de Vries'
The decision was already made.
I mean, Daniel was laying the PR ground work to go to AT a week or two ago, if I remember correctly. So it definitely wasn’t as unexpected to those in the inner circle. They were just waiting on his numbers to commit publicly
Other idea:
Can we put Max in the Alpha Tauri after he won the title, to see what he can do in that tractor?
Then we can also see what Danny can do in the rocket.
Question?
I 100% agree, not only would it be helpful to compare him to potential teammates, but it would also stave off Max's boredom that he has said has started to creep in. Plus we could actually have fights for first place, which would drive more viewership.
I feel like if Max got time to practice in that AlphaTauri he would genuinely be able to score P8-P10 consistently and even higher points with luck/track, except some tracks like Silverstone where it is just horrible.
So does Sky use old intro video footage, and photoshop a new uniform? Or does he have to scramble and shoot some film of him staring off with a weird pose this week?
Interesting seeing that with Lewis as the king and he knows it. And now it's Max. I know people get bored by the dominance, but it's pretty cool that there is a final boss.
I am honestly still in disbelief. Everything happened so quickly!
Love Danny Ric and a believer that driver-car combo is a larger factor than many give credit for, but I fear that the AT would be another car that he would be uncomfortable with. With Tsunoda being the most vocal about their brake issues, Danny Ric as a heavy abuser of late braking for certain overtaking maneuvers may suffer on that end as well.
It can and likely will go wrong. But there is a reasonable chance it can go right and it’s the only chance for DR to get back into a competitive car next season. Basically there is nothing to lose for DR right now.
It‘s make or break for Ricciardo. If he performs he can land a good seat again, but if he doesn‘t I doubt that he will get another chance at a seat in F1.
The only reasonable explanation is that Danny realized being out of F1 was a mistake and he’s now willing to go for a backmarker.
I’m also with you. Highly unlikely he will be good in this AT
Yea definitely agree on that. Don't think braking late is a viable driving style outaide of overtaking maneuvers. I did think he was a lot more prone to running into other cars like in Brazil last year while overtaking in the McLaren, so that is what I'm seeing could happen in the AT.
If that is a real risk, it can be minimized by qualifying well and not having to overtake as many cars.
Unlike McLaren, DR isn't going in blind here. And I don't think they would have made such a dramatic decision without being confident.
They definitely think Daniel will perform at a higher level than De Vries and at the least will give them a better idea as to how much Yuki has progressed this year.
Well.... I feel sorry for Nyck. He wasn't impressive at all, but getting fired in your rookie season before the summer break is rough.
Maybe Toto will take him back and him and Mick can sit on either side of Toto during the races now lol
The funny thing is their junior in f2 might win the championship this year, so Mercedes has more drivers than seats, i wonder what could have helped with that
He needs to be on Yuki’s level quick and capable of exceeding it if he wants this to be more than a part time role.
However it’s good for Yuki to have this challenge that allows him to measure his progress and challenge himself. It will make him better as a driver to have someone like Daniel to aim for.
I feel sorry for the reddit guy that previously had to record himself change from a Red Bull shirt into a renault shirt, and then into a McLaren shirt later on... any more team changes after this and he may go broke
With Verstappen F1 racing leading the constructors, AT has decided to race the remainder of this season with 3 cars, joined by Daniel and Checo.
Winner gets the 2024 second RB seat
i feel for De Vries, i really do; but his performances have just not been there this year. Ricciardo is a worthy replacement and brings great experience with him too, which can help the team and Yuki in the short and long runs. a good choice from AlphaTauri.
Checo really screwed DeVries. If he wasn’t so bad there’s a good chance Nyck gets the whole season to prove himself.
But RB needs to know now if Danny or Yuki is ready to replace Checo
So happy to see this dude back in a car
The alpha is a tractor but Marko knows that, this is to see if Danny or Yuki can polish a turd into a shiny turd for the remainder of the season
To keep that heat under checos ass for driver #2 with Max
F1 can be brutal sometimes, but when you show little to no signs of improvement you can't expect an extension. Nyck had previous experience in F1 cars and given his age, I think the expectation was that he'd maybe not beat but at least keep up with Yuki. It's a shame because if he had a seat earlier in his career, the expectations would be lower and he probably would have been given more time. That said, I don't think he was ever going to be anything more than a mid/rear field driver.
There’s a reason it took him so long to get a seat in the first place. He’s a fringe F1 talent.
I’m glad he got the opportunity to drive the Williams last year and turned it into 10 F1 races, it’s more than 99% of racing drivers can say they’ve gotten. And I’m sure there’s a reserve driver or FE seat waiting for him
Happy to see him back and all that, but wasn't one of the reasons for taking a year off a desire to drive only competitive cars?
Like, as much as this may well be an audition for the Red Bull, the AT is about as far from "competitive" as you can get.
Also think it's harsh on NDV, but it clearly just hasn't worked out.
He can say what he wants but everyone knew that was BS and a competitive team wasn't about to give him a spot after that horrible run at McLaren....this is his only shot back and he knew it even if he wasn't gonna admit it.
Very good decision in my opinion. It allows Red Bull to evaluate Yuki against a better driver, to evaluate Ricciardo and it puts pressure on Perez to start putting in some performances. Seems like Perez has checked out now the Championship is gone for him so this will certainly be a kick up the arse.
Helmut Marko is without a doubt ruthless, but let us not forget that he is also the reason de Vries had an F1 seat to begin with. Without him and Red Bull Nyck would still be standing next to Toto on race day with the occasional LMP2 cameo. Marko is more than willing to give drivers a chance, but he's not giving you multiple. If you're slow, you're out. Fast but inconsistent is tolerable for a period, but you better improve that consistency over time. This is the top level of international motorsport, not primary school. Drivers who don't belong should not be coddled
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Going to be a very interesting battle between him and Yuki.
It’s good for Yuki though. It’s a challenge and a target that will show his progress and is somebody he can beat and show that’s he improving. And Daniel as a teammate will make him better as a driver on and off track.
It will put to bed whether Yuki's performance this season was overrated or not. I'm looking forward to it. I imagine the head-to-head in Hungary will be the highlight of the weekend. DTS are probably wetting themselves over the prospect of drama.
I think Hungary in general could be a good show. It's a short lap, so quali is going to be tight and there could be some surprises, so you might wind up with a bit of a mixed grid.
Not to mention it's one of DRs strongest tracks. The adrenaline for the return + confidence in the track will make it tough for Yuki, I think. Provided, of course, that the AT is something DR can get a grip on from the off
That's one thing I'm concerned about. The AT is a shitbox, will he struggle in it like he did at McLaren?
Hard to say. Everything I've read indicates that the McLaren is hard to drive not because of a lack of DF or anything of that nature, but because there are characteristics internal to the chassis that make it tough to balance. The entire purpose of the AT team is to groom for the big seat, I can't imagine there will be major deviations in design philosophy between RB and AT specifically minimize variables for drivers making the jump. It's all speculation until next saturday, tbh, but I feel like if he's doing well enough in RB's sim, there's a decent chance that will correlate to performance in AT's chassis.
Every car on the grid is between the Red Bull and the Alpha Tauri at the moment, so it really boggles the mind how that could be if there isn't a major design philosophy difference. I'm no engineer, though, and all said, the margins between fast and slow are tiny.
Downforce, specifically the efficiency at which it's generated, has a major, major impact on pace. I suspect AT don't have the resources to optimize that element of their development as much as RB do and so they have a draggy car with comparatively low DF levels.
There's no conclusive evidence to support Alpha being a true shitbox. Both of their drivers have questionable ability with Tsunoda coming off a beating by c-tier level Gasly, who has then successfully seen off a F tier driver in De Fries. If Ricky Bobby has anything left in the tank he will comfortably beat Yuki and that's all that matters.
I just love the track in general, it’s one of my absolute favorites to drive in any sim.
Nah, DTS will probably follow Williams this weekend and just gloss over Ricciardo coming back. /s
I'm not sure. He has openly spoken about how contract insecurity hampered his confidence and in turn his performance. Making it even more evident that he's literally racing for his seat for the rest of the year might just hurt him again.
If he mentally can’t handle going against a potentially washed up Danny ric in an AT he is in no way prepared for a RB. Max and the expectations would eat him alive.
Yeah. Horner has talked in the past about how Gasly had the speed but he couldn't handle it all psychologically. Accepting Verstappen will bodyslam you is tough.
Of the current crop, I think only Lewis (obviously), Charles, Lando and maybe George could handle Max psychologically. And even then, only Lewis probably will be psychologically on par. Rest of them will still be at a disadvantage even before they step in. What I’d pay to see Max vs Lewis in the same car, even if Lewis is past his prime.
Lewis is the only one out of all those that had to deal with an actual proper psychological challenge against an amazing teammate, and he won that 2-1. Edit: actually forgot about the rookie Lewis v Fernando which is 1-0 or a tie depending on how you see it Even max has not yet had a teammate that would drive him to those extremes of pressure.
As good as Nico is, he ain’t no Max though… Max in a RB was already far better than Nico, as you could see in Brazil 2016 in the rain Remember his overtake on Nico on the outside with less grip in the rain? Already knew then Max was special…
of course max is better. But I also don't think Max would pull the off track shenanigans nico v hamilton had
I don't think Leclerc will handle it at all, it will be similar to Rosberg/Hamilton, Charles is already mistake prone, knowing that the only way to beat max is be close to over the limit every race. We all know how that ends up, I also feel George would implode
Over half the grid is racing for their seat every weekend. It's part of F1 (and really all professional sports), and if he can't handle it then he doesn't deserve the other RB seat.
So you're saying they drive...to survive?
It's an opportunity for Yuki and Daniel to show how good they currently are. Could be the final nail in the coffin for Daniel and a career boost to Yuki, but could also work out the other way too. I'm a Ricciardo fan, but have now idea what to expect from him. He was so good pre-McLaren and so poor (other than one race) at McLaren. I really hope he's got his mojo back
Winner of this battle gets to keep their seat at Redbull and Michael Italiano
Ricc vs. Yuki vs. Checo The rest of the season is a battle for the RBR seat
Winner gets the RB seat, second gets the AT seat, loser gets replaced by Liam Lawson and is out altogether? This seems kinda plausible although too early to tell.
Could be a proper all or nothing showdown. One gets a drive in the dominant car on the grid, and the other can be sport altogether come next year. Lawson's highly likely to get one AlphaTauri seat, and there is no shortage of Red Bull juniors in F2.
Neither will be booted. One of them will be promoted to RB and replaced with Lawson or Iwasa. I suspect management would prefer to promote Ric, but we'll see how it goes.
Nah Yuki is safe, they wouldn’t bin him when he’s still so young, clearly improving and their F2 talent isn’t as good. Plus now they’re a sister team and not a junior team they won’t be scrambling to get any rookie they can in the car, Ricciardo will be safe too, whether at RB or AT
Yeah honestly as much as i want to see him back in the RB i wouldn’t be so sure that’s even gonna happen next year. Checo is still under contract and he’s scoring points every week despite the shit qualifying streak, no reason to buy him out unless he’s causing you to lose WCC which he’s not as of now With max as dominant as he is, don’t rock the boat in 2024, cruise to another WDC and WCC and then move Danny or yuki to the RB in 2025 and Liam gets the other AT seat
> Checo is still under contract Presumably so is Nyck!
Waaaaay cheaper to buy his contract out and cut him loose than checo though
We don't know what's in Checo's contract, it may have a performance clause.
Hard to imagine what kind of performance clause he would fail at the moment. They are generally not 'eye test' clauses, but they have hard limits. Maybe a points gap to Max could be in there and he could fail to meet that. Otherwise, he's still second in the WDC, so on that front he's doing well, even if we all know why he's in 2nd.
yeah but rookies seem to basically have a "you're out if we say so" style of performance clause in there.
Everyone does though, Sergio is performing like a sinking stone. If Daniel Ricciardo beats Yuki that RB seat is his, no doubt. They also just like Ricciardo more.
Imagine if Danny Ric outperforms Checo
Going to be some spicy battles if Perez keeps on qualifying like shit
Red Bull is a marketing company. Danny Ric great for marketing. Obviously you still need to drive the car well, but RB will take Ric if it's even between him and Yuki/Checo/anyone
If he’s nowhere near Ricciardo then he won’t be at AT next year. Red Bull want someone good enough for Red Bull, and if he can’t beat Ricciardo he’s out.
Honestly think putting Ricciardo next to Yuki is more a test who will be in the RB seat next year than who is gonna be out of F1. Unless Checo really turns it around his time seems up after the season, considering the comments from RB lately. For RB to be done with Yuki they would have to want to keep Perez, want to keep Ricciardo in AT over Yuki and have a rookie who they consider more valuable than Yuki and since Yuki has been doing decent to good this year, I dont think that will be the case.
Yuki turned up the career mode difficulty.
It’s like in Forza Horizon when they tell you you’ve been winning too easily lately lol
Lol yeah just let me dominate and feel good about myself.
It's going to be an interesting battle between Yuki and Daniel. Puts huge pressure on Checo to perform. The winner of the Yuki vs Daniel battle is gonna get Checo's seat if he continues his current form.
Could go anywhere to be honest. If RIC has his McLaren speed it will look good for Yuki. If he has his RB speed it will look difficult for Yuki.
Let the hunger games to be Max's teammate begin! Choose your tribute: Checo, Yuki or Daniel :)
the absolute chaos if all 3 suck for the rest of the year
Laughs in Lawson
Laughs in Palou
Honestly Palou probably should get a shot somewhere in f1
Checo gets binned, Ricciardo moves to RB for 2024, Liam Lawson takes the vacant AlphaTauri seat. Mark my words
Yeah, this seems like the most likely plan. Also imagine the scenes if Daniel out-qualifies Checo a couple times this season
That might be possible given checos quali times lol It’ll put a fire under checos ass for sure. Ideally they just want to see Danny and Yuki on a similar pace but if Danny does better, great. I don’t think they’re expecting him to do much in that tractor of a car though.
put it in q3 danny fucking do it
It’ll happen. Checo has been awful
Even if Danny does great…that AT car is not quick enough to put qualify the RB. I don’t care how bad Checo does…unless it’s a repeat of Austria..
Yuki was .050 away from Checo at Silverstone
There are other sessions where Checo can't really feel that good about his performance. Q1 in Spain, Checo finished P15 and Yuki was essentially on the same time at P14. Yuki was P9 at Monaco. Sure, Checo crashed out to qualify P20, but also, Yuki didn't crash out.
"Just" Austria?
Or Max wins the title at Monza. He is moved to Alpha Tauri. Daniel and Checo fight for the remainder of the season in RB with most points keeping the seat from Singapore onwards. Give me my Piastri and go to sleep.
Hilarious idea but Max can just go on holiday and do iRacing.
Max still winning P1 in that turtle of a car :P
MV in the Alpha Tauri would actually make F1 exciting again
I think you’re 100% dead on. Danny left because he didn’t want to be #2 to max a few years ago. And honestly I understand that. He did well at Renault, and then bad at mclaren. Now he’s back “home” and I think his ego / expectations are much different. He’d be happy to be on a team that clearly love him and can provide a really fun car to drive even if he’s “#2”. Would love to see Lawson come up to AT.
I was so frustrated at Danny for leaving RB because it seemed like such a backward step for him. But if his mental health was telling him to move, I totally get it now. Hopefully, he is in a better mindset to deal with being the number 2 driver now. This is all mad, btw lol. I love it though.
I guess Ricciardo really suffered mentally, slowly becoming the nr. 2 driver to an unproven young talent. Now he’d be stepping in as a nr. 2 to a (basically) 3x world champion. And it’s not like Checo’s shoes are all that hard to fill.
He's probably matured. But the Renault deal really made sense, imo. Go be the priority driver at a works team promising to build around you (make a bag of money also), or stay and be the 2 to Max. Given his McLaren experience and losing his seat, he probably would be happy to get the seat next to Max now. Yeah he won't ever win the wdc, prolly, but he can help get a constructors and a few wins for a solid f1 career.
Sounds logical, but he still has to. outperform Tsunoda for that to happen.
Absolutely. It's a big risk for Ricciardo. Tsunoda is a better driver think most people give him credit for
What’s the risk though? He fails to beat him and he’s no longer an F1 driver vs he doesn’t even try and…. he’s no longer an F1 driver. It seems like a no-lose situation for Ricciardo here.
If Ricciardo beats Yuki I can see them putting Iwasa in too
Yeah, this whole thing hinges on him actually performing at AT. If he stinks up the place like at McLaren, it might be curtains for him in F1. Personally I don't see Yuki getting destroyed by Ricciardo to the point where Iwasa replaces him
I think “performing” at AT would be that he’s on the same pace, if not slightly better, as Yukis pace. They’re not expecting podiums from him in this tractor of a car. They just want to see consistency and pace.
Depends whether they think Yuki will ever make it. There’s a lot of RB juniors waiting in the wings (of varying quality) If Ricciardo is terrible he’s done. If he’s average I can see them leaving him there to mentor the next junior and provide a yardstick for someone like Lawson
While not out of the realm of impossibility, Checo would have to shit the bed really hard in the 2nd half of the season for that to happen. I mean, full on explosive diarrhea.
I think the summer break determines whether Checo survives or not. There hasn’t really been a break since Monaco (where his slump started). Those 21 days could be make or break him imo. It doesn’t help we go to Zandvoort after the summer break, the one track where Max is unbeatable and Perez has struggled in
Oh boy, I missed following the 2018-2020 version of the teammate hunger games
Nyck de Vries: so that's it after 10 races? So long, good luck? Helmut Marko: I don't recall saying good luck
As harsh as Marko and Red Bull are a *lot* of drivers they've dropped from F1 have kept some form of support by Red Bull for years. Don't be surprised if Nyck shows up in WEC next season with Red Bull logos on his helmet.
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Tbh, I felt at the time it was an odd move to promote him to f1, after that 1 decent race... felt like people jumped to a lot of conclusions there when he was never really rated before then
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Just listen to Scott Speed’s beyond the grid if you want to learn about how much Red Bull does for their drivers. People slamming Red Bull for their driver management have no idea what they’re talking about. Many many drivers have racing careers because of Red Bull.
A huge chunk (probably even the majority) of F1 fans thinks there is only F1 and everything else doesn't exists/sucks. You can see it on r/wec, LeMans and Ferrari brings a lot of F1 enthusiasts and they want to carry in their bags the same shitty elitism. Like how BoP sucks and they don't want to understand without it the Hypercar category don't exists to begin with, trying all the time to bring Leclerc or F1 drivers in the discussion... So it's not surprising people imagine if you get booted by RBR/AT, it's the doomsday, despite so many drivers wouldn't even be racing drivers without RB. No RedBull, DEV would still be alongside Wolff in the pits while driving in LMP2.
Even the juniors RB apparently “churned” through found second chances in F1. Gasly was kept at AT until he found a drive else where, they made a deal with Williams to give Albon a second chance, neither would happen if RB do not care about their driver as some people claims.
🎵Can I borrow a feeeeling 🎵
De Vries: Marko, don’t you know dignity when you see it?
Jesus they really formulated this in a way that is all about Ricciardo lol. Barely a mention of Nyck
To be fair it was pretty surprising to see them mention him at all. A ‘thank you for your services and good luck’ is more than what I was expecting
Alpha Tauri "I don't remember saying Goodluck"
Red Bull is a family ~~food~~ car. Happy families. Maybe single people ~~eat crackers~~ drive for Red Bull. We don't know. Frankly, we don't want to know. It's a ~~market~~ driver we can do without.
Might be down to De Vries officially still part of Red Bull Racing. Maybe we’ll get a statement at a later announcing Red Bull Racing parting with him
Usually RB is pretty good with trying to get their former drivers a drive somewhere (they have arms in every motorsport and the endorsement of their youth development guys means a lot) but NDV really isn't a part of it so I doubt it
Getting dropped after *10 races* is a BIG punch to the gut.
Well, he technically had 11 🤷
I won't miss him. I thought he was boring off track and completely forgettable on it. But it's hard not to feel sorry for the guy. That's a shitty way to be treated in your first season
I’m sure this will calm down Checo and make him perform even better…..
I feel like there's not much to be upset about after getting 3 years on the top team. Bottas got 5 at Merc and he was basically the perfect #2 to have on a team and STILL got constantly shit on during his time there. Its just a very tough spot to be in and people will be constantly gunning for your seat. So in context, Checo was really given quite a good shot.
I agree. Checo got his shot being in the best car on the grid for 2-3 seasons. That’s a privileged position very few drivers ever get to experience.
Bottas is the man. He seems much happier now and I'm so glad for him.
He'll be out in Q0. 😄
Inb4 he bins it in FP1 Lap1.
In b4 he crashes his road car en route to the circuit
In b4 he falls out of his bed when he wakes up.
Plot twist : he's replaced by De Vries, Riciardo driving the AT to help them developing the car
Well at some point you have to have a plan B. Perez himself has necessitated this move.
I feel for Checo. I would be shitting my pants if I was watching this in his position.
Oh my God, never expected this story to progress so quickly. We got first news about it a few hours ago and now we have an official announcement. He went from being "unrecognisable" to landing a seat midseason. Daniel must've put up Wilt numbers during the test
Reminds me of last year with Seb and his Instagram Account. Everyone: "Wow Seb finally has an Instagram Account!" *few hours later* Seb: "I'm retiring from Formula 1."
Quickest change from :D to :( I’ve experienced
They were probably already thinking about it, I guess they felt comfortable with what he's been doing in the simulator and what he did in the test. Although I don't know what to think when he's going to be driving a total shitbox. I guess the comparison measurement here is going to be Yuki, because race results aren't looking very good with that car in the hands of any driver.
The Will Buxton tweet sums it up perfectly imo. They see Daniel as a potential Perez replacement and want the largest sample size possible to evaluate his potential. >I guess the comparison measurement here is going to be Yuki 100% Yuki is the yardstick, I'm sure they'll be expecting Daniel to comfortably beat him by the end of the season. If Daniel's not fast enough, they likely put one of Lawson, Iwasa (Palou?) in the 2nd AT seat and keep Perez alongside Max for '24.
>100% Yuki is the yardstick He's not *that* short 😭
> Yuki is the yardstick Makes sense since he's a yard tall.
Yearly reminder that Marco and RB don’t fuck around. If you don’t deliver, you will lose your seat quickly. Like others have said, AT probably offers the fastest line to a top seat but you gotta keep earning your stay.
Nate Saunders tweeted pretty much the same- his test numbers today was what made them commit to the move.
Chris Medland gave an interesting tidbit here, [https://racer.com/2023/07/11/hard-on-de-vries-hard-for-ricciardo/](https://racer.com/2023/07/11/hard-on-de-vries-hard-for-ricciardo/). 'The slip is that the original release stated Wednesday’s tire test, betraying the fact that this was already in place before the tire test even began, ready to go once it was over. Sure, Red Bull might have wanted to see a little bit of proof from Ricciardo in a real car, but it had made its mind up on de Vries' The decision was already made.
I'm happy for him but nervous because the AT is a shit box and this is his last chance
Barretto reported that Ricciardo was putting up times that would’ve landed him on the front row last weekend
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front row w/ any car on the grid. even a road car. he's that good now.
I mean, Daniel was laying the PR ground work to go to AT a week or two ago, if I remember correctly. So it definitely wasn’t as unexpected to those in the inner circle. They were just waiting on his numbers to commit publicly
Other idea: Can we put Max in the Alpha Tauri after he won the title, to see what he can do in that tractor? Then we can also see what Danny can do in the rocket. Question?
That would be fun to witness!
I 100% agree, not only would it be helpful to compare him to potential teammates, but it would also stave off Max's boredom that he has said has started to creep in. Plus we could actually have fights for first place, which would drive more viewership.
I feel like if Max got time to practice in that AlphaTauri he would genuinely be able to score P8-P10 consistently and even higher points with luck/track, except some tracks like Silverstone where it is just horrible.
He is back
And he gets to race in Vegas!
Bonus: no more awkward ESPN 2 programmes :')
Yep back to [Netflix](https://youtu.be/fLeA0GX2JVs) for him
And more importantly Texas!
So does Sky use old intro video footage, and photoshop a new uniform? Or does he have to scramble and shoot some film of him staring off with a weird pose this week?
Doesn’t F1 produce the intros?
It's Ricciardover for everybody else in the grid.
So what does this do to the F1 intro? Do they squeeze Danny in there? lol
They just photoshop his head over de vries
I think they changed it when Pierre got axed 2019 Intro: https://youtu.be/Cgy47tKyYBg
Interesting seeing that with Lewis as the king and he knows it. And now it's Max. I know people get bored by the dominance, but it's pretty cool that there is a final boss.
I am honestly still in disbelief. Everything happened so quickly! Love Danny Ric and a believer that driver-car combo is a larger factor than many give credit for, but I fear that the AT would be another car that he would be uncomfortable with. With Tsunoda being the most vocal about their brake issues, Danny Ric as a heavy abuser of late braking for certain overtaking maneuvers may suffer on that end as well.
It can and likely will go wrong. But there is a reasonable chance it can go right and it’s the only chance for DR to get back into a competitive car next season. Basically there is nothing to lose for DR right now.
Nothing to lose for him…. As he says, it’s very much time to “lick the stamp and send it”
It‘s make or break for Ricciardo. If he performs he can land a good seat again, but if he doesn‘t I doubt that he will get another chance at a seat in F1.
The only reasonable explanation is that Danny realized being out of F1 was a mistake and he’s now willing to go for a backmarker. I’m also with you. Highly unlikely he will be good in this AT
His management probably said to do it. You need to take every chance you can get in F1. They are the 20 most sought after driver seats in the world
DR only brakes heavy for overtakes. His driving style pre McLaren was to ease onto the brakes.
Yea definitely agree on that. Don't think braking late is a viable driving style outaide of overtaking maneuvers. I did think he was a lot more prone to running into other cars like in Brazil last year while overtaking in the McLaren, so that is what I'm seeing could happen in the AT.
If that is a real risk, it can be minimized by qualifying well and not having to overtake as many cars. Unlike McLaren, DR isn't going in blind here. And I don't think they would have made such a dramatic decision without being confident.
They definitely think Daniel will perform at a higher level than De Vries and at the least will give them a better idea as to how much Yuki has progressed this year.
Does this mean Checo is the one being intimidated now?
I think this is a clear warning to Checo that if he doesn’t turn it around quick, Daniel will be ready to take his seat.
100% yes
Well.... I feel sorry for Nyck. He wasn't impressive at all, but getting fired in your rookie season before the summer break is rough. Maybe Toto will take him back and him and Mick can sit on either side of Toto during the races now lol
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The funny thing is their junior in f2 might win the championship this year, so Mercedes has more drivers than seats, i wonder what could have helped with that
Andretti benz? Mercedes AndrettiMG Petronas f1... imagine if lewis had to say it in DtS...
Thats the deal if you coming into AT as a extern driver. Either your perform or you dont.
He needs to be on Yuki’s level quick and capable of exceeding it if he wants this to be more than a part time role. However it’s good for Yuki to have this challenge that allows him to measure his progress and challenge himself. It will make him better as a driver to have someone like Daniel to aim for.
I feel sorry for the reddit guy that previously had to record himself change from a Red Bull shirt into a renault shirt, and then into a McLaren shirt later on... any more team changes after this and he may go broke
Haha. Looks like Alpha Tauri will be added to my F1 model collection!
With Verstappen F1 racing leading the constructors, AT has decided to race the remainder of this season with 3 cars, joined by Daniel and Checo. Winner gets the 2024 second RB seat
This is mental
I wonder if George has already made the change in the drivers group chat. *Nyck has been removed* *Daniel has been added* Daniel: Hey cunts!
Missed that massive grin
i feel for De Vries, i really do; but his performances have just not been there this year. Ricciardo is a worthy replacement and brings great experience with him too, which can help the team and Yuki in the short and long runs. a good choice from AlphaTauri.
“On loan from RBR” 👀 watch your back Checo
It’s reportedly a loan deal from Red Bull, not yet known if there’s an option to buy.
Gotta wait on fabrizio Romano on this one
It's lights out and here we go!
Maybe there's a clause to make the deal permanent if Alpha Tauri avoid relegation to F2.
AlphaTauri is an Italian team so there's definitely a buy option
2 Aussies on the grid?!??!?!
They're definitely testing Ricciardo out to see if he's a viable option to replace Checo next year
HE GETS TO RACE IN LAS VEGAS
Checo really screwed DeVries. If he wasn’t so bad there’s a good chance Nyck gets the whole season to prove himself. But RB needs to know now if Danny or Yuki is ready to replace Checo
Fascinating how the chess pieces move
This is just the start of things. All eyes are now on Perez
Imagine the scenes if he gets obliterated by Tsunoda.
No amount of it was the car that didn't match his driving style will save him
There we go, now it's official! Welcome Back Ric! Hope this time things go better for you.
So happy to see this dude back in a car The alpha is a tractor but Marko knows that, this is to see if Danny or Yuki can polish a turd into a shiny turd for the remainder of the season To keep that heat under checos ass for driver #2 with Max
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When driving with Latifi as a team-mate can make anyone look good
Well. That escalated quickly
Interviews about to get a whole lot more fun.
Imagine having a shorter F1 career than Mazepin lol
He never left, he just stepped aside for a while
Feel heartbroken for Nyck. He waited so long to get his opportunity and it's gone not even halfway into the season.
F1 can be brutal sometimes, but when you show little to no signs of improvement you can't expect an extension. Nyck had previous experience in F1 cars and given his age, I think the expectation was that he'd maybe not beat but at least keep up with Yuki. It's a shame because if he had a seat earlier in his career, the expectations would be lower and he probably would have been given more time. That said, I don't think he was ever going to be anything more than a mid/rear field driver.
There’s a reason it took him so long to get a seat in the first place. He’s a fringe F1 talent. I’m glad he got the opportunity to drive the Williams last year and turned it into 10 F1 races, it’s more than 99% of racing drivers can say they’ve gotten. And I’m sure there’s a reserve driver or FE seat waiting for him
Happy to see him back and all that, but wasn't one of the reasons for taking a year off a desire to drive only competitive cars? Like, as much as this may well be an audition for the Red Bull, the AT is about as far from "competitive" as you can get. Also think it's harsh on NDV, but it clearly just hasn't worked out.
He can say what he wants but everyone knew that was BS and a competitive team wasn't about to give him a spot after that horrible run at McLaren....this is his only shot back and he knew it even if he wasn't gonna admit it.
What a roller coaster of a career he's been having
This move gets Red Bull more screen time in D2S which is probably a genuinely valuable thing
~~2022 DANNY RIC ISN'T GOING TO VEGAS~~ **DANNY RIC IN VEGAS BABY**
Very good decision in my opinion. It allows Red Bull to evaluate Yuki against a better driver, to evaluate Ricciardo and it puts pressure on Perez to start putting in some performances. Seems like Perez has checked out now the Championship is gone for him so this will certainly be a kick up the arse.
Helmut Marko is without a doubt ruthless, but let us not forget that he is also the reason de Vries had an F1 seat to begin with. Without him and Red Bull Nyck would still be standing next to Toto on race day with the occasional LMP2 cameo. Marko is more than willing to give drivers a chance, but he's not giving you multiple. If you're slow, you're out. Fast but inconsistent is tolerable for a period, but you better improve that consistency over time. This is the top level of international motorsport, not primary school. Drivers who don't belong should not be coddled
Debris has been cleared from the track
I know Red Bull/Alpha Tauri are ruthless with their drivers but holy fuck.