“Checo is second in the championship, so it wouldn’t make sense to want to get rid of him now,” says Helmut Marko after De Vries’ sudden dismissal
“If Ricciardo had not had the speed, we would have had to consider something else. Alpha Tauri is last in the constructors and we had to react,” he explains.
Following the dismissal of nyck devries after playing just ten races in Formula 1 with the Alpha Tauri car, it has become clear again the power of Helmut Marko at Red Bull and the ‘iron hand’ with which he runs his pilot program. Many point out that his next ‘victim’ could be Sergio Pérezwho in the last five Grands Prix has not qualified for Q3, a very negative statistic and even more so considering that he drives the best car on the grid by far. marko has openly criticized him although denies the rumors that point to his imminent replacement and confirms… for the moment.
Daniel Ricciardo will return to the grid at the next Hungarian GP (July 21-23) determined to assert himself at the wheel of the Alpha Tauri and the energy drink team has also set its sights on Lando Norris, although with a view to 2026, when the 23-year-old British driver concludes his agreement with McLaren.
“Checo is second in the championship, so there would be no point in wanting to get rid of him now”, Marko has assured in an interview with the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf regarding the departure of De Vries from the Red Bull subsidiary team. “His race was good at Silverstone, but he needs to improve in qualifying,” he adds about the Mexican’s performance.
No one escapes the scrutiny of the doctor marko nor is he one hundred percent assured of the position: “From Ricciardo, we also have to see first how he compares with Tsunoda. I think a lot of people underestimate Yuki. The AlphaTauri is not the easiest car to drive, but Yuki has shown that he is possible to get good results,” he says.
About the reasons that led him to opt for Daniel Ricciardo to fill the position of De Vries, marko attributes the decision to the Australian’s performance on Tuesday in the Pirelli tire test at Silverstone behind the wheel of the Red Bull RB19: “His lap times were competitive, on three different sets of tyres. If Ricciardo hadn’t had the speed, we would have had to consider something else,” he admits.
“AlphaTauri is not in a good position and is last in the manufacturers’ standings, so we had to react to change this situation. Ricciardo brings new energy to the team, that usually happens after a driver change,” concludes Marko.