Franz Tost reveals road map for Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula One comeback

Ricciardo reunited with his former team as Red Bull's third driver for the upcoming season.

Daniel Ricciardo (Image credit: Crash.net) and Franz Tost (Image credit: PlanetF1)

After McLaren ended his contract early, Daniel Ricciardo returned with his old team Red Bull as a third driver. A move for the Australian back to Red Bull seems impossible, but with Nyck de Vries struggling at sister team AlphaTauri could be on the cards. AlphaTauri prepares young drivers for promotion to Red Bull, but team boss Franz Tost won’t take the risk if they’re not ready. This opens the door for Ricciardo’s F1 reentry

According to the Race, the AlphaTauri boss stated that performance determines the course of action. He mentioned that the team’s philosophy is to train young drivers. However, if the team does not currently consider the young drivers at the required level, such as Ayumu Iwasa and Isack Hadjar, who are performing well but still need more time, we may consider alternative options. Tost added that we have not yet discussed the matter.

“The philosophy is quite clear, the performance decides. Of course, the team philosophy is to educate young drivers. But if young drivers are not currently there – they’re coming. Iwasa is doing a good job, and Hadjar is doing a good job,” the AlphaTauri boss said, as per the Race.

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Also read: Nyck de Vries receives a vote of confidence from Max Verstappen amidst brutal Helmut Marko criticism

Franz Tost anticipates Nyck de Vries’ performance surgeon familiar tracks

Franz Tost and Nyck de Vries (Image credit: GPblog)

AlphaTauri’s current idea is to continue supporting Nyck de Vries as their preferred option, but his performance is under increasing scrutiny with each race. Before the Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko unintentionally revealed that Christian Horner initially had reservations about signing De Vries.

However, Franz Tost, scheduled to retire at the end of this year, believes that De Vries will perform better on familiar tracks. He stated that in Formula 1, all drivers face pressure, and the performance of Nyck will be observed in the current race and Silverstone, considering his familiarity with these tracks.

For the first time in #F1 history, the entire field was separated by less than a second at the end of a session ?

Just 0.858s split Max Verstappen in P1 and Nyck de Vries in P20 at the end of Q1 for the #AustrianGP ? pic.twitter.com/IsJINiX8XG
— Autosport (@autosport) July 1, 2023

The team principal emphasized that rookie drivers are facing a challenging situation in the present era. He also mentioned that the current races are taking place at tracks that the drivers are familiar with. Tost claims this familiarity would give them greater confidence and help them perform better.

In the same interview, Tost said, “We will see how Nyck is doing here, how Nyck is doing in Silverstone because he knows these race tracks. We must not forget that the rookie drivers nowadays are really in a difficult situation. Now at least they come to race tracks which they know. It’s Austria, it’s Silverstone, Spa, Budapest, Monza,” Franz concluded.