What Ricciardo's return means for the sport

This week, AlphaTauri announced that they were sacking Nyck De Vries and bringing fan favorite Daniel Ricciardo back. Although Nyck was a rookie this season, his performance was nowhere close to what was expected of him, having only finished in the points once, AlphaTauri is currently last in the construction championship. His teammate Yuki has also cumulated 2 points from finishing 10th in Australia and Baku.

AlphaTauri's team principal Franz Tost is known for his experience in the sport and drivers. Something that made this call surprising to me is that just a few years ago when Yuki joined the team as a rookie, despite his poor results Franz continued to back him and help him develop. Yet, after 10 races Franz decided to sack Nyck. I think there are 2 reasons why AlphaTauri and RedBull decided to make this switch:

1. AlphaTauri's main purpose as a team is a) to help junior Red Bull drivers develop and get experience and b) to see which junior driver deserves a seat in Red Bull. With that said DR coming in could be to make Perez sweat a bit. Perez lately has not done the best, not making Q3 or even Q2 in the last few races. Max we all know is not going anywhere so RB not might be considering DR for the seat but want to show Checo that they are considering that option. Red Bull has also been caught talking to Norris all year and has even shown interest in drivers like LeClerc. Plus RB has a very talented junior team with the likes of Liam Lawson.

2. The second option is that RB is seriously considering DR for Perez's seat. In that scenario, DR would have to hit the ground running in Hungary, immediately performing better than Yuki and placing consistently in the points. If he can do so, Daniel can be a candidate for the Red Bull seat next year.

With this said, we will only know Alpha Tauri's plans as the season progress starting this weekend in Hungary. Daniel also has lots of experience and is more likely to get more points for the team, hopefully, this change will raise Alpha Tauri's position in the Constructors championship. Last season, when Daniel was in the McLaren he consistently struggled with getting used to the car, since he has had time to practice on the sim I expect him to not have the same issue with the new car. We are sure to have an interesting rest of the season, Thanks for reading, see you soon!