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Red Bull made a last decision to terminate Nyck de Vries's contract with AlphaTauri on Tuesday, July 11. They replaced him with eight-time race winner and Red Bull reserves driver, Daniel Ricciardo.
After miserable 10 races, with AlphaTauri with P12 being his best season finish at Monaco Grand Prix, Helmut Marko decided to sack de Vries with immediate effect. Before driving for the sister Red Bull team, Nyck de Vries was a reserve driver for the Mercedes AMG F1 team.
He is close friends with Mercedes Team Boss Toto Wolff and the entire team. Hours after the news of de Vries being sacked broke out, the two were spotted by fans in Monaco.
Some fans had some hilarious reactions to Toto Wolff meeting up with his ex-reserve driver after being fired. Others appreciated Wolff for his actions and stated that that's what a "dad" does.
Nyck de Vries hasn't opened up about the entire situation or his future, which is currently unclear. Some fans think he might return to Mercedes as a simulation/reserve driver.
The reason why Nyck de Vries was dropped by AlphaTauri
After just 10 races in his first full-time F1 season, Dutch rookie Nyck de Vries was fired from his seat at AlphaTauri. He became the latest victim of Red Bull's brutal driver selections.
De Vries is the only rookie alongside Logan Sargeant who hasn't scored a point in the course of this 2023 F1 season. De Vries was given multiple chances to improve his performance.
But when he showed no improvements, Red Bull and Dr. Helmut Marko decided to drop the Dutch driver. They replaced him with their reserve driver, who will start from the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix.
Helmut Marko stated that De Vries showed no evidence of improvement throughout his 10 races at AlphaTauri. He addressed why he decided to replace Nyck de Vries (via RacingNews365):
"We expected him to be at least equal to his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda this year, but that was not the case. Actually, he was always three-tenths of a second slower. We didn’t see any improvement." he said.
Marko also stated that any other opportunity in F1 is currently difficult for De Vries. But he could have some options outside of Formula One if he wants to continue racing.
Marko even opened up about why he decided to replace De Vries with Daniel Ricciardo. Following the Silverstone race, Christian Horner called Marko following Ricciardo's RB19 tire test for Pirelli. A swift decision was taken to dismiss De Vries in order to provide the seat next to Tsunoda.
