AlphaTauri CONFIRMS Ricciardo as De Vries' replacement

Joe Ellis
Tuesday 11 July 2023 17:03

AlphaTauri has officially confirmed the F1 return of Daniel Ricciardo for the rest of the 2023 season.

Reports emerged on Tuesday that the Australian would make his return to the sport as he drove in the Pirelli tyre test for Red Bull at Silverstone.

De Vries, who has not scored a point in 2023 after achieving the feat on his debut for Williams in 2022, will therefore be axed from the team ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo, 34, will partner Yuki Tsunoda from the Hungaroring onwards at Red Bull's sister team, which currently sits bottom of the constructors' standings with just two points.

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Ricciardo returns to former team

Red Bull signed Ricciardo as its reserve driver for the 2023 season although wouldn't have hoped to draft him into a race seat so soon.

But this move sees the Australian return to one of his first F1 teams having spent two seasons with Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2012 and 2013.

He then earned a promotion to Red Bull in 2014 and out-shone reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel at the start of the turbo hybrid era.

Seven race wins with Red Bull and his effervescent personality saw him become almost universally popular but he eventually left for Renault when Max Verstappen became the main man for the Milton Keynes team.

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