“Daniel Ricciardo doesn’t want to say ‘AlphaTauri’ - it’s probably the slowest car,” says Ted Kravitz
The veteran driver will immediately replace N♋yck de Vries for AlphaTauri, beginning with next week’s F1 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo exclusively told Crash that he would accept an Alp👍haTauri drive if it led to receiving a shot with Red Bull - but Sky’s🍒 pitlane reporter has noticed something worrying.
“That quote from Ric𒁏ciardo? I thought it was odd,” Kravitz ✱said on the .
“He𒉰 said ‘I’m sﷺtoked to be back on track with the Red Bull family’.
“He can’t even bring h♏imself to say AlphaTauri!&nbs𒉰p;
“He doesn’t want to sa🦹y ‘I am delighted to drive the AlphaTauri’,🍒 maybe because it’s not a great car.”
Ricciardo received news of his full-time return while driving the Red🐼 Bull at Silverstone for a tyre test, clocking impressive times albeit with faster tyre compounds and in good conditions.
“It’s all well and good b🦋asing it on the Red 𒆙Bull RB19,” Kravitz said.
“Which is the class of the field. But he’s not driving🏅 that car.
“He’s dri🀅ving probably one of the slowest cars on the grid! If not the slowest! Whic💖h is the AlphaTauri.
“The AlphaTauri had some upgrades at Silverstone and they finis🍨hed further down than they normally do with a non-upgraded car. This is not a great AlphaTauri, it’s fair to say.
“Not to say that they shouldn’t ha💮ve replaced Nyck de Vries. Clearly it wasn’t working.
“But the surprise is why Daniel Ricciardo would want to go in to t♐hat car. A car that is worse than the McLaren he left last year!
“Maybe there’s some longer-term gain in it for Ricciardo. Because therཧe might well be some short-term pain if he can’t do any better than De Vries﷽.”
James was a sports journalis🥃t at Sky Sports for a decade covering everyt🌞hing from American sports, to football, to F1.
