Nyck de Vries has been replaced at Alpha Tauri by eight-time Formula One race winner and Red Bull third driver Daniel Ricciardo for the remainder of the 2023 season.
The move follows weeks of speculation and rumours surrounding the future of the Dutch driver, who has struggled to get to grips with the AlphaTauri package, failing to score a single point in his rookie season.
However, he is a Formula One points scorer after replacing Alex Albon at the Italian Grand Prix last season when the Williams driver was unfit to race. He finished ninth, the joint-best result for the team all season.
His replacement, Daniel Ricciardo already has multiple race wins to his name and is a hugely popular figure around the world of Formula One. He previously raced for the Red Bull team between 2014 and 2018, winning seven races including the historic Monaco Grand Prix in his final season in that spell with the team.
Ricciardo then made the switch to Renault for the 2019 season, where he would remain for two seasons before moving to McLaren, the team he would score his most recent race win with at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza during his final season there.
Following a difficult spell with the Woking-based team, he was replaced by Oscar Piastri at McLaren and was left without a seat for the 2023 campaign. He joined his old team, Red Bull Racing as their Third driver, which originally was just going to be testing and show runs, with no plans for him to get any on-track time in any official race weekends.
De Vries was a different choice for AlphaTauri than we have seen in the past. The Dutch driver was already 28 years old when the opening race of the season took place in Bahrain. He was also not promoted from within the Red Bull Junior Team, instead making the switch from rivals Mercedes where he was Reserve driver for the eight-time World Champions.
His racing CV is quite impressive for a rookie. He won the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship and in the 2020/21 season of the FIA Formula E World Championship, he became the first World Champion of the series, when he was driving for Mercedes-EQ.
Daniel Ricciardo’s first race back on the Formula One grid will be the Hungarian Grand Prix which takes place 21st-23rd July in what will be Round 11 of the season.