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I see a lot of criticism (more Atlas than here, to be fair) of Marko and the RB Academy as a whole. It is perhaps sensible to point out that de Vries was never an RB Academy driver, and on top of that he was the third choice for that seat (behind Gasly and Herta). At his age, and in those circumstances, he was never going to be given a great deal of time. A punt was taken - if he had turned out to be faster than Yuki, then the gamble would have paid off. He wasn't, so he gets cut.

Furthermore, the entire point of AT is to evaluate drivers to see if they are good enough to drive for the parent team, and always has been. For this reason, Ricciardo is a perfect driver for them - if he has gotten his mojo back, he will be replacing Perez next year. If he hasn't, he will go back to being the mascot and sim donkey. He will not be driving for AT next year. At least one junior driver will be promoted, and the cycle will continue.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Earlier this year it was said Red Bull was shocked with the regression they saw on Ricciardo. Apparently, his years in McLaren made him acquiring bad habits to compensate the struggles he had to adapt to the car. For him to be given this chance it is very likely Red Bull did a good job for him to find his old and better form.

I was thinking the same thing. Horner has mentioned the 'improvement' multiple times this season. Perhaps RB just 'get' Ricciardo in a way McLaren did not. It's certainly not an unheard-of situation.

according to his testing times today he's still quite capable

But he was driving the Red Bull and not the AT so results may vary. I really hope he does well

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Motorsports trend for 2024: climate change ruining races everywhere

This is a good video on it

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

Think about it, only 2 drivers have survived it in the long run. The rest end up in Formula E.

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I personally see now that it will be a shoot-out between Tsunoda and Ricciardo for the 2nd RBR seat for 2024, unless Perez really lifts his game. Lawson will get the 2nd AT seat for 2024 regardless what happens, Perez will find himself into a mid-field / back marker seat for 2024.

Maybe the problem is not the drivers?

So Dan has gone form one of the worst cars last year to the worst car this year. I can't see him performing better than Tsunoda to be honest. I think this move is more about evaluating Yuki alongside Dan for a possible Perez replacement than it is about de Vries being crap.

I really don´t rate Tsunoda that high. I can´t imagine that Red Bull will want to put him in the 1st team. And when the engine deal with Honda ends, there will no longer be the need to give a seat to a Japanese driver.

Sorry for all the spam, but this is just soo cool.

It's disgusting to kick a rookie out at mid-season. Only the worst offences should warrant that, or a very obvious lack of performance or motivation. It's really strange to see this being sort of normalised because it's inline with the RB philosophy, or because it makes some obscure sense for the future of the senior team.

The whole RedBull F1 business machine looks, feels, and tastes like crap. Formula 1 is worse for having these characters onboard. I can't stand anymore to read about Marko's latest tantrum, hear Horner's weasely smirky voice, and see them abuse all their drivers except for daddy's special spoiled brat - with all the respect I have for his natural driving talent and bland face. This is all so far removed from the Coulthard days.

Hear, hear.

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Lurking around since 28/06/2002

You clearly don't remember the Red Bull driver sharing right from the start if you are referring to the Coulthard days.

People seem to forget that all of the other teams passed on Nyk. Continuously. He is middling at best. Yeah I think he deserved a season, but I wouldn't say it is disgusting. Harsh yes, but as a F2 and FE champion they clearly expected better.

But here is a thought. Maybe Red Bull actually think that the Alpha Tauri is an OK car and the drivers haven't been able to get the performance out of it? Also Horner had this to say.



Clearly Dan smashed it in the tyre test which was probably their final judgement. They clearly see more upside in Dan than Nyk, hence the change. I think Nyk deserved to see out the season, but if they were underwhelmed by him and had no plans in the future for him then why keep him when they have someone they feel is better than him? And if Das doesn't beat Yuki (going to be tough) he can't be any worse than Nyk.

Sucks, but hardly disgusting.

The same Coulthard who was parked in the middle of his first season to be replaced by 40-year-old Mansell? That Coulthard?

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

The tyre test is skewed in Ricciardo's favour because he drove the RB on an empty track.

A more interesting comparison would've been to have Daniel in the AT or Nyck in the RB in the same conditions.

People love to shit on Red Bull for their driver dealing but where would the Minardi team be if RB didn’t buy it? Would it be better off with a different owner or would it be out of F1 by now? Or filled with at best mediocre pay drivers?

They gave a lot of drivers their shot at F1. A good portion of them would never have gotten that shot otherwise. And in the time they got they also didn’t impress any of the other teams to give them another shot

You're running a business, in a billion dollar sport, there's no "giving a bloke a fair go" in this day and age. He's been worse than mediocre. If I had the choice between an 8 time race winner who's finished runners up in the F1 title, who's made mincemeat of a 4 time world champion while he was in his prime, or keep my rookie who's either finishing close to last, or last, or crashing, I know what I'm going to do.

What's the alternative? Keep him there for 2 maybe 3 seasons, like they did Buemi, Bourdais, Speed, Liuzzi, Hartley, JEV, Alguesuari. All those guys eventually improved right?



Roy Nissany would have just got his 14th DNF for the season and we're only 10 races into the season.

This whole ricciardo saga was a plot by red bull to drain their then rivals renault of a huge amount of their budget and you can't convince me otherwise

Seemed to work pretty well, Ricciardo got his millions and Renault slipped down the order lol

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