Helmut Marko makes brutal Nyck de Vries remark after Daniel Ricciardo re-debuts

Jamie Woodhouse 24 Jul 2023 3:45 PM

Helmut Marko, Red Bull, looks serious. Spain, February 2022.

Helmut Marko was feeling vindicated in his decision to axe Nyck de Vries from AlphaTauri and put Daniel Ricciardo in his place, claiming the driver swap “worked out perfectly”.

De Vries was fired from Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri after failing to impress driver programme boss Marko across a 10-race stint in his rookie F1 campaign.

And with De Vries barely even out the door, Ricciardo was confirmed as his replacement for the remainder of the F1 2023 season, having been serving as Red Bull’s reserve driver.

Daniel Ricciardo in for Nyck de Vries brings “perfect” outcome

Heading into his first race weekend with the Faenza squad since 2013, the bare minimum expected of Ricciardo was for him to beat his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

He would indeed edge the Japanese racer in qualifying trim, and went on to finish P13 to Tsunoda’s P15, Ricciardo having been an innocent victim in a multi-car shunt at the start, one which he felt cost him the chance to score points.

But, while Ricciardo could not on his first attempt do what De Vries had failed to do in his stint, that being to deliver a point for the struggling AlphaTauri team, Marko is feeling very satisfied indeed with his latest brutal driver decision.

“Nyck de Vries没有辜负我们的期望,” said Marko, as per Grandpx.news.

“At the same time, AlphaTauri dropped to last place and two new managers [Peter Bayer and Laurent Mekies] are coming in. Franz Tost is retiring. The motivation and the passion seemed to have gotten a little lost in the team.

“一个司机改变总能有积极的效果. That’s the emotional aspect.

“It’s also the positive momentum that he [Ricciardo] brought to the team and a stabilisation of the technical statements and changes.

“The change worked out perfectly.”

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Helmut Marko explains Liam Lawson snub

With AlphaTauri designed to act as the junior team to Red Bull, the decisions to overlook current Red Bull junior Liam Lawson and sign De Vries, before then snubbing Lawson again for Ricciardo’s return, was met with some criticism.

Marko though revealed the multiple reasons why Red Bull decided that Ricciardo was the better option, with his experience of Formula 1 cars across various teams a major selling point.

“We considered him [Lawson], but the risk would have been too great because he lacks routine and doesn’t yet have the image of a Ricciardo,” said Marko.

“Liam should finish his [Super Formula] season in Japan in peace. We also considered that with Ricciardo and his experience he can make different statements about a racing car than Yuki, who has only driven for AlphaTauri.

“So it’s also about a technical assessment of the situation there. A second factor is that with Ricciardo we can compare him to Tsunoda, because we don’t really know exactly where he stands.”

Ricciardo’s next opportunity to deliver a points-scoring finish is just around the corner as Formula 1 heads to Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo won this event for the one and only time in his career back in 2014, his first season as a Red Bull driver.