F1 News: AlphaTauri Boss on Daniel Ricciardo Returning to Seat

AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost has addressed the rumours of Daniel Ricciardo joining the team.

AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost has spoken out on the rumours of Daniel Ricciardo returning to a full time seat with the Italian squad. 

McLaren announced during the 2022 season that they were parting ways with the Australian driver at the end of the year. As the season progressed with no announcements, it became apparent that Ricciardo was struggling to secure a suitable seat for 2023. 

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It was later confirmed that he had signed with Red Bull as their third driver for 2023, however, Ricciardo has remained adamant that he is keen to rejoin the grid in 2024. Although, he has said that he only wants to come back to a "competitive" seat. 

Rumours have been swirling again recently after Nyck de Vries has struggled to put in a good performance during his rookie season with AlphaTauri. To add to the speculation, Ricciardo has also said that he would be willing to come back to AlphaTauri in order to work his way back up to finish his F1 career with Red Bull.

Addressing the rumours of Ricciardo replacing de Vries, Tost explained during the Austrian GP press conference:

“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, some good young drivers, Iwasa is doing a good job, Hadjar is doing a good job, but it’s simply a little bit too early for them.

“I see them earlier or later in our team but if the time is too early, then maybe we have to find another solution. But this has not been discussed so far.”

The team are clearly going to give de Vries some more time to settle into it with this being his rookie year, however, it is becoming general consensus that he is likely to lose his seat at the end of the season unless he is able to severely turn things around.