Is the Australian's move to AlphaTauri the best for both him and the Italian-based team?
You already know the big news; the immediate swap of Nyck de Vries and Daniel Ricciardo, in place from this weekend in Hungary. This move has had the armchair experts of F1 deciding whether this was a good move for the Australian.
Let's start with Daniel; after a disappointing stint with McLaren in 2021-22, he chose to sit out the 2023 season - or at least he did until the seat became available for him at the AT team. Ex-AT driver, Nyck de Vries, only survived 10 races into the 2023 season before being given the boot, due to his poor performances and crash-happy behaviour - something AlphaTauri couldn't afford to finance in the new cost cap era. De Vries was beaten at almost every opportunity by teammate Yuki Tsunoda, with a head2head comparison between the two coming out at 5-2 & 6-1 to Yuki's favour in qualifying and raceday respectivley. However, having a good result in the current AT-03 is challenging, with the car being a regular backmarker. Tsunoda's perfomances have shown its maxium perfomance by grabbing just 2 points over the season so far, with Nyck scoring none.
If Daniel is to graduate from the back of the grid forwards (possibly to a seat at Red Bull?), then he must showcase his poterntial from this weekend onwards. Beating Yuki (who has shown some promise, but is hardly the next Fernando Alonso) will be crucial if he wants a better race seat come 2024. However, being on the grid at all is good for Ricciardo, where he can showcase his undoubted talent.
Moving on, was this a good move for AlphaTauri? Many have suggested even signing de Vries for the 2023 season as a mistake to begin with; Helmut Marko even came out in the media, saying it was his idea to sign de Vries after his fantastic Monza performance, where Christian Horner, RBR Team Principle, disagreed on the move. De Vries has been under
pressure for his seat since the start of the season; he knew from race one, that if he underperfomed, he would be out, no ifs or buts. However, was Daniel the best choice for AlphaTauri? The 34 year old Australian is hardly a future star, neither for AT or for Red Bull. His most recent perfomances at McLaren were lacklustre at best, and downright woeful at worst - of course disregarding his incredible Monza 2022 win. Is Ricciardo past his best years as the 'last of the late brakers'? The recent evidence would certainly agree. The move also appears to have been rushed; his garage board is simply his head photoshopped onto Nyck's body, although AT has assured fans this will be fixed for all future GranPrix beyond this weekend.
Many believe Liam Lawson would've been a better fit for the Emilia-Romagna based suit. He is a promising rookie that has worked up through the junior ranks. He also participated in DTM in 2020, and is currently 1 point behind the leader of Super Formula, in second place. He would've fitted the usual cut-out for Red Bull's 2nd team, being a promising young rookie.
However, HAAS displayed in 2021 that having 2 unexperienced drivers in the same team ends in disaster, woeful performances, and a crash bill larger than Yuji Ide (!). Ricciardo could act as a mentor for Yuki, and, as everyone knows, his personality creates fans - just look at his stint at Renault in 2019-20. His large DTS-based fanbase will support him, wherever he goes, and however he performs. This could create more buzz and fanbase around AlphaTauri, which is sorely needed; when did you ever meet an AT fan?
With all of that, will Daniel perform for this weekend and the rest of the season? Only time will be able to tell us...
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