Aussie makes surprise return to F1 as Kiwi gun misses out

Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo will make a shock return to Formula One at the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix.

The eight-time Grand Prix winner, who was axed by McLaren at the end of last year, will replace Nyck de Vries at Red Bull’s junior team AlphaTauri for the rest of the year.

The Hungarian GP is on July 23.

“I am stoked to be back on track with the Red Bull family,” Ricciardo said in a statement released by Red Bull Racing on Tuesday.

Kiwi Liam Lawson is the reserve driver with the Red Bull and AlphaTauri teams and would have been considered a strong option for the seat after showing excellent form in the Super Formula series, where he sits second in the standings through five rounds.

Rookie De Vries was hired by AlphaTauri at the beginning of this season but he has been dropped after only 10 races, paving the way for Ricciardo’s sudden comeback.

The 34-year-old Ricciardo’s career looked to be all but over after he was deemed surplus to requirements by McLaren following two underwhelming seasons with the British team.

Ricciardo failed to land a seat for the 2023 season and instead chose to return to Red Bull — the team at which he won seven Grands Prix — as a reserve driver.

Ricciardo got his first taste of this season’s Red Bull during a tire test at Silverstone on Tuesday — 48 hours after the British Grand Prix in which De Vries finished 17th.

Given Sergio Perez’s torrid run of form, which has seen him fall 99 points adrift of teammate Max Verstappen in the world championship standings, AlphaTauri’s move to hire Ricciardo will fuel speculation that the Australian could land a seat back at Red Bull.

For the 28-year-old De Vries, the writing appeared to be on the wall after Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko recently said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was right to have questioned why he was signed.

The Dutch driver crashed on multiple occasions and failed to score a single point with a best finish of 12th at the Monaco Grand Prix in May.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission