Daniel Ricciardo and Nyck De Vries are the target of paddock gossip.

Daniel Ricciardo and Nyck de vries may be inline for a switcheroo at Alpha Tauri according to various paddock rumours. De Vries hasn’t been doing so well this season, and people started speculating when Ricciardo paid a visit to Faenza recently.

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Ricciardo, who’s currently playing the backup role for Red Bull, swung by the Alpha Tauri factory to get his seat fitted. This got tongues wagging about de Vries’ future, especially since he’s been struggling with his performance.

But hold up, there’s another angle to consider. Ricciardo’s seat fitting could just be a routine thing since he’s also Red Bull’s reserve driver for Alpha Tauri. In theory, either team could call him up if they needed a replacement, so that’s probably why they did the fitting.

Regardless of all the gossip, de Vries’ track record with Alpha Tauri this year is a cause for concern. The 28-year-old got his chance in F1 thanks to a standout performance with Williams at Monza in 2022, but he’s been consistently slower than his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda.

And it’s not just about being slow. De Vries has made quite a few blunders as well. He finished 14th in Bahrain and Jeddah, but then crashed out in Melbourne and Baku. Just last weekend in Miami, he messed up at the first corner and bumped into Lando Norris’ McLaren. Luckily, neither driver got hurt.

Last month in Azerbaijan, Alpha Tauri’s team boss, Franz Tost, tried to brush off de Vries’ mistakes and lackluster results, saying it’s all part of a rookie’s learning process. According to him, crashing is just something drivers have to go through to find their limits. He even mentioned how Sebastian Vettel used to come back without a front nose in his early races. It’s all part of the game.

But you can bet Helmut Marko, the big boss at Red Bull motorsport, will be keeping a close eye on de Vries’ performance in the upcoming races at Imola, Monaco, and Barcelona. If things don’t improve for the Dutchman after those three races, we might see the Honey Badger himself in the Alpha Tauri garage for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal next month. Fun fact: That’s also where Ricciardo grabbed his very first F1 win back in 2014.

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_{Daniel Ricciardo and Nyck de vries}

_{Featured Image – Nick de Vries by Red Bull}

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