AlphaTauri invites trolling from critics over Photoshopped Daniel Ricciardo poster ahead of his grand return to F1

AlphaTauri faces backlash from fans over the edited image of Daniel Ricciardo in Nyck deVries' racing suit.

AlphaTauri invites trolling from critics over Photoshopped Daniel Ricciardo poster ahead of his grand return to F1

For the next Hungarian Grand Prix, the Austrian team AlphaTauri will welcome the Daniel Ricciardo back to Formula 1. Due to the firing of Nyck De Vries, the Australian racer, who was driving for Red Bull as a test driver, will now get the opportunity to compete again with their junior team. After his switch to AlphaTauri was announced, a photo of the former McLaren driver donning his AlphaTauri race suit made rounds on the internet. But later, it was discovered to be Photoshopped, and some back-staff editors at AlphaTauri faced heat after the incident.

The Australian driver’s new team received harsh criticism from fans because of manipulation of his old photograph. In response to criticism, AlphaTauri was forced to take down a picture of Daniel Ricciardo before his Formula 1 comeback at the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend. It is not new in Formula One to use the edited picture of the new driver. But this time, the picture looked too much out of sync for Daniel Ricciardo that the fans quickly took notice of the forgery.

YouTube video

The issue is that Ricciardo’s head was digitally inserted into the body of former AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries. The head cutout was taken from Daniel’s picture from the time he was in McLaren. The cutout was then placed onto the body of recently fired driver Nyck De Vries. The Dutchman is not as tall as Daniel, and the posture of the picture looked so much different that the team instantly faced backlash as the edits could be pointed out clearly. 

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Daniel Ricciardo: The Only Way Is Up

Daniel Ricciardo got pole position at the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix
Daniel Ricciardo got pole position at the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix [via Twitter]

Franz Tost, Team Principal for Scuderia AlphaTauri, said, “I’m pleased to welcome Daniel back into the team.” “There is no doubt about his driving skills, and he already knows many of us, so his integration will be easy and simple.” Daniel Ricciardo has won eight Formula 1 Grand Prix races, which according to Tost is going to be a great asset to the team. Daniel started his career in Alpha Tauri back in the day when it was called Toro Rosso. 

Slowly, Ricciardo climbed the ladder of Red Bull and into the First team. Ricciardo and the Red Bull chiefs are hoping to recreate the same results. Faith and hard work are going to play a big part in this journey for Ricciardo. And after the win in Monza in 2021 when he famously said he had just moved aside for a while, and he never left, as his critics had thought. This should be enough to indicate the passion and dedication of the Australian Driver. 

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