Daniel Ricciardo has returned to Formula 1 at the hands of AlphaTauri after the Red Bull affiliate team decided to fire nyck devries for poor performance. Therefore, the Italians will join the Australian with Yuki Tsunoda, a pair of pilots that combines youth and experience, a formula that aims to imitate the one that has Aston Martin with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
This is how he explained it Peter Bayer, executive director of AlphaTauri, in a statement to ‘Motorsport’. With the arrival of Ricciardo, they are also looking for his experience to help Tsunoda: “It makes a lot of sense to have that older brother within the family who takes care of the development of young pilots“.
“The purpose will continue to be that we find young talents. We could expand and structure it a bit more. It is also currently being discussed whether that means we have to compete with two young drivers or eventually we will have a more experienced driver with a younger driver, which I think makes it very interesting,” added Bayer.
Franz Tosthead of the AlphaTauri team, has always stated that a driver needs three years to adapt to Formula 1. An idea that Bayer half understands: “Franz is right, he always talks about three years, but if you think that two boys are going to drive three years, there is impatience and there is no clear strategy. It’s something we want to develop and make sure we get it right.”
Beyond De Vries’ poor performance, one of the reasons that brought Ricciardo back was his experience, something that will help Tsunoda’s development. A formula that the Faenza team has seen in Aston Martin and they want to replicate it.
“It’s not just about points. Look at Fernando and Lance. You have a top pilot who helps youthat looks for the set-up, that tells you ‘think about this, think about that, press more here'”, he explained.
At the moment, Ricciardo will only be there until the end of the season, like Tsunoda. Based on this experiment of a pair that adds youth and experience (a replica of what they have at Aston Martin), AlphaTauri will judge and decide their positions for 2024.
