Christian Horner opens up on the departure of Nyck de Vries and hiring of Daniel Ricciardo with a potential Red Bull F1 drive.
Horner has opened up on the departure of de Vries from AlphaTauri and how the decision came about which was conveyed by Helmut Marko to the Dutchman midway during the Silverstone Pirelli test when Ricciardo proved that he can make a return to F1.
Horner reiterates that it took time for Ricciardo to be back up to speed post the McLaren departure and in these six months, he slowly got his confidence and mojo back. He didn’t say no when asked about drive with AlphaTauri for his return.
Horner knows it will be difficult but Ricciardo can handle it. He saw the drive in the Australian which he showed when he was being trialed for a Red Bull drive 10 years back where he was pitted against Carlos Sainz with Kimi Raikkonen in the frame too.
As for de Vries, Horner puts him in the stopgap category nothing that he came in with experience on his back even though it wasn’t in F1. The Red Bull chief ruled out Liam Lawson too, as he puts Ricciardo in position for a 2025 drive alongside Max Verstappen.
Return to Red Bull fold –
Horner: “It all kicked in a hotel room in Mexico last year, I had a meeting with Daniel and it was clear that his options for this year were going to be a bit limited, he just looked pretty broken and I said why don’t you come back to Red Bull for 12 months out of the car predominantly, help us with simulation work and bit of tyre testing and just come back to fold and re find his passion for the sport. It was clear that he wasn’t enjoying things. To be honest, I didn’t really recognise the Daniel, over the last couple of years, that we’d sort of grown so used to, that had grown up with us. So that’s where it started. He came in and drove the simulator the day after Abu Dhabi, or a couple of days after Abu Dhabi. It was a complete disaster and he’d picked up every bad habit imaginable when he was working with this previous engineer. Gradually we unpicked it. With each session he just got better and better. You could see his confidence growing to the point that he was absolutely on the pace with the race drivers. The plan was always to put in him in the Silverstone test, and keep him busy in the off-track activities, marketing wise and the test was extremely impressive.”
Ricciardo 10 years ago and now –
Horner: “We tested him 10 years ago and it was like who will be the right person to replace Mark Webber. Kimi Raikkonen was one of the favourites at that point. We decided to give Carlos Sainz a brief run with a set of brakes and Dan in the afternoon. Carlos was couple of tenths near to Sebastian and Daniel went a little bit quicker when he drove the car. What impressed me the most when I went up to have a look at the test was, bearing in mind he hasn’t driven this car, hadn’t been in a car for seven months, within his third or fourth lap he was down to a time that was within a second of what our drivers were achieving. Then in his first proper run, as it were, on tyres that were comparable, you could see his confidence was growing and growing and that first lap on probably what was his seventh lap of the day would have put him on the front row of the grid. So it was hugely impressive. I was just pleased to see that he was still able to operate at that level. You could see, I mentioned to him ‘that would have put you on the front row of the grid’ and you could see almost the relief in his eyes and almost like the pressure release off his shoulders that he could still do it, that he wasn’t going mad and the old Daniel was still there. And then his long runs were very impressive and the work that he did for Pirelli was absolutely on the money.”
Discussions about AlphaTauri return –
Horner: “Obviously before the test there was some element of discussion with Daniel to say, look, if this goes well, would you be up for driving an AlphaTauri because things aren’t quite going as we’d hoped with Nyck. Would you be up for that challenge? And he [said] ‘yeah, absolutely’. He was prepared, if you like, to take a step backwards to try and take two steps forward. First of all it was Daniel if he wanted to do it. Stepping into an AlphaTauri is different to driving a Red Bull car and it would certainly have its challenges. I think the thing was to be sure that he is up for that challenge, scrapping to get out of Q1 and he seems more than happy to get back into that situation, to get back into the grid, be a Formula 1 driver again.”
Happening with de Vries –
Horner: “It was becoming obviously a difficult situation for Nyck de Vries, but there was a high expectation on him because whilst inexperienced in Formula 1, he’s obviously a very experienced driver. I think there was a general feeling that Nyck wasn’t quite hitting the mark. And then the question was what are the options if we were to switch things around? And from a Red Bull Racing perspective, the most interesting option for me was to see how Daniel performed. So that was the decision that was made. It all happened pretty quick. And here he is for the Hungarian Grand Prix.”
How was it communication and not giving Dutch GP chance –
Horner: “It all happened little quicker than expecting. Bearing in mind that we hadn’t completed the test but Helmut spoke with Nyck and he was the one who obviously recruited him and he was the one who spoke with Nyck on Lap 11 of the test I think. Look, Nyck is a very capable driver and a Formula E champion and Formula 2 champion. He’s obviously got a lot of experience. He’s not a young driver as such, from an age perspective. And I just didn’t see how it fitted within the junior program. It was always a stopgap. I think it’s very difficult to do that. It would have meant obviously leaving him in the car until after the summer break. I think the situation was clear. It was a question of okay, what’s the point of waiting? If we are going to do something we might as well get on with it and give Daniel 12 races to see what he’s capable of.”
No Lawson –
Horner: “Liam has obviously done well in Japan, it was perhaps unfair to throw him into a situation where..putting him straight into a car like that. So, I think it made logical sense and object of the test, going okay for Daniel to step up into that cockpit. And of course by halfway in the test, he had already done that.”
Future of Ricciardo with Red Bull –
Horner: “At the moment there’s only something in place until the end of the season. So there’s no thoughts or expectations beyond that. We’ve loaned him to AlphaTauri to the end of the year. Obviously our drivers are going to be Max and and Checo again next year. But it’s always good to have talent in reserve. I think Daniel is viewing AlphaTauri, he firmly wants to be pitching for that 2025 Red Bull seat. That’s his goal and objective. And by going to AlphaTauri, I think he sees that as his best route of stating his case for 2025.”
Here’s the full podcast: https://audioboom.com/posts/8336123-christian-horner-on-ricciardo-s-return-hungarian-gp-preview
Here’s Daniel Ricciardo on his F1 return with AlphaTauri
Here’s Daniel Ricciardo visiting Faenza
Here’s drivers reacting to Nyck de Vries getting out