F1 Experts Team Up to Expose Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull “Connections” That Forced Nyck de Vries Out

The days leading up to the summer break have been more exciting in terms of driver transfers than the entire winter break has been so far. AlphaTauri firing Nyck de Vries ten races in, and having Daniel Ricciardo replace him caused quite the turn of heads.

While most pundits agreed that while de Vries’s stay in the sport was short-lived, his performances did warrant a change of things sooner or later. However, now that the season has ended, experts have come to believe that it’s not just the driving aspect of the job that helped Ricciardo land the job.

Daniel Ricciardo used his connection to chuck Nyck De Vries out

Well, that’s the case that two Dutch experts are presenting as of now. Racing driver and analyst Tom Coronel, and former Bridgestone engineer Kees van de Grint, came up with almost similar theories as to why Nyck de Vries was forced out of AlphaTauri. These two pundits believe that the only reason that Daniel Ricciardo is even in contention for the Red Bull second seat is because of his connections.

Tom Coronel recently said to GP Fans, “Nyck de Vries had to leave in the summer break – it was a whole soap opera. I still think it is unreasonable and weird. On the other side, I see it. I look at Horner and Ricciardo are just good friends. You can see that clearly. Ricciardo handed himself to them. Yes, Horner had to make choices. But if they hadn’t been friends, it would have been different or Nyck.”

The Bridgestone engineer van de Grint also had similar opinions that he had stated in a video two days ago. “AlphaTauri could have scored as many points with Nyck de Vries as they did with Daniel Ricciardo.” He continues, “Ricciardo is well placed with the top people at Red Bull. I don’t believe he is better than Perez. When the two were teammates earlier, Verstappen was still a rookie and a newcomer. Still, Verstappen was better. Unfortunately, it’s not just about the pace, it’s also about connections and how well-connected you are.”

Read more: ‘Daniel Ricciardo Is Not a Superstar’: Ex-Ferrari Insider Defies Popular Belief to Root for Sergio Perez

Despite this, the two Dutch insiders coming in support of the former F1 Dutch driver don’t override the fact that Nyck de Vries failed to score even a single point in the 10 races that he participated in. Daniel Ricciardo, on the other hand, managed to score 6 crucial points and even managed to qualify ahead of Sergio Perez in Mexico.

Daniel Ricciardo’s future chances with Red Bull

With Sergio Perez’s poor run in qualifying, it may be apparent that Ricciardo might have a clean road to Red Bull come 2025. Both Honey Badger and the Mexican minister of defense have one season to convince the bosses at Red Bull that he will be fast in the second car.

Connections or not, Daniel Ricciardo will need to give it everything he has to give himself a shot at getting back to the front of the grid. There are already a lot of people, including Ferrari insiders, who opine that Ricciardo doesn’t stand a chance as the second driver.

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However, with contracts being as long and tight as they are, and Horner’s reluctance to put an inexperienced driver in the second seat, Ricciardo looks like the only realistic driver if Perez fails to deliver. Regardless of what happens, there’s one thing for sure, the 2024 off-season will be much more interesting than the end of the 2023 season.