Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has made the surprise revelation that Nyck de Vries was sacked just 11 laps into Daniel Ricciardo’s recent test at Silverstone.
Following an eight-month spell on the sidelines, Ricciardo returns to Formula 1 at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix on loan from Red Bull to AlphaTauri following De Vries’ brutal dismissal just 10 races into his rookie season.
After being taken on as third driver with Red Bull following his own dismissal from McLaren last season, Ricciardo was given an opportunity to prove himself in this year’s RB19 at Silverstone two days after the recent British Grand Prix.
It has now emerged that longstanding advisor Helmut Marko, who has long overseen the hirings and firings in both teams, did not take long to form a decision given Ricciardo’s impressive cameo in the current car.
As to when a decision was taken, speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Horner said: “It all happened a little quicker than expected, bearing in mind we hadn’t completed the test.
“Helmut spoke with Nyck – you know, he was the one that obviously had recruited him – so he was the one that spoke with Nyck about lap 11 of the test, I think.”
Despite an impressive performance on his F1 debut with Williams in last season’s Italian Grand Prix in which he finished ninth in standing in for the appendicitis-hit Alex Albon, De Vries failed to reach such heights during his brief time with AlphaTauri.
The F2 and Formula E champion was not aided by what has been the worst car on the grid this season, leaving the team languishing in last place in the constructors’ standings with only two points to its name courtesy of two 10th-place finishes from Yuki Tsunoda.
De Vries did not help himself either, however, as he was involved in a number of incidents, and only finished ahead of Tsunoda twice in the 10 grands prix he started.
“It was becoming obviously a difficult situation for Nyck, but there was a high expectation on him because, whilst inexperienced in Formula 1, he’s obviously a very experienced driver,” assessed Horner.
“I think there was a general feeling that Nyck wasn’t quite hitting the mark. And then the question was, what are the options if we were to switch things around?
“From a Red Bull Racing perspective, the most interesting option for me was to see how Daniel performs.
“So that was the decision that was made. It all happened pretty quickly and here he is for the Hungarian Grand Prix.”
Horner insists there was no point in waiting until after De Vries’ home race at Zandvoort at the end of August.
“That would have meant obviously leaving him in the car until after the summer break,” said Horner.
“The situation was clear. It was a question of, ‘Okay, what’s the point in waiting?’
“If we’ve got to do something, we might as well get on with it and give Daniel 12 races to see what he’s capable of.”
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