What will AlphaTauri do with Daniel Ricciardo? Will Yuki Tsunoda stay? Is Lawson the next success story? Will Nyck de Vries return? Officially this is all still guesswork, but the solution seems close.
Things are not going smoothly for the junior team Red Bull, AlphaTauri. The team ended last year with an empty seat now Alpine is running away with Pierre Gasly. Yuki Tsunoda, who has been in the junior team for about three years, stayed. Although the speculative question is whether the young Japanese driver has what it takes, as he is not yet performing as if he belongs in a Red Bull (and AlphaTauri is simply the springboard to Red Bull). The empty seat was filled by Nyck de Vries. Even though the Dutchman was able to score points during a substitute session at Monza the year before, this year it was so bad that he was kicked out halfway through the year.
Daniel Ricciardo
And who was there to fill the hole Nyck left behind? Daniel Ricciardo! Verstappen’s ex-teammate at Red Bull, then semi-successful Renault driver and not ridiculously successful McLaren driver, was first put on the backup bench at Red Bull. But the 34-year-old Australian is still full of fighting spirit and dares to make a return to Red Bull Jr. yes. If it weren’t for the fact that he hasn’t driven a single race yet. His replacement was announced before the summer break and after the summer break, during a free training session, he broke a bone in his hand and therefore had to miss Zandvoort, Italy and Singapore. The Australian will also not race at Suzuka. So the big new (old) promise from AlphaTauri is still on the backup bench while Liam Lawson from the same backup bench is now driving the races.
New driving duo
In short: AlphaTauri has a few names to choose from, all with a big ‘but’. Yuki Tsunoda is in a ‘now or never’ situation when it comes to performance, we don’t know anything about Daniel Ricciardo yet, Liam Lawson doesn’t have the experience (yet) and Nyck de Vries has proven not to be suitable. That could be exciting when it comes to the driver duo for 2024. Yet it all seems to be less exciting than expected.
Tsunoda and Ricciardo
The generally well-informed sports editors of The Telegraph I already know that nothing has changed. Both Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo will remain with AlphaTauri in 2024. They have both signed for one year. Of course, you don’t know anything for sure (Nyck de Vries would stay until the end of this year), but if you know that relegation hangs over you after the summer break, you naturally feel extra pressure to perform. AlphaTauri is expected to make an official announcement during the GP weekend in Japan. It’s fortunate that they stay with Tsunoda, after all, you don’t want to show your Japanese driver the door in Japan.
Ricciardo therefore has the fighting spirit to do his best again and the Australian even thinks a return to Red Bull is a goal to have in mind. Lawson would find it a shame if he had to return to the reserve driver position, but hey, it’s a rough world. Except for Williams (Sargeant), all seats are now filled again and everything remains the same.
This article AlphaTauri duo for next year almost certainly first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
#AlphaTauri #duo #year #certainly