Martin Brundle: Daniel Ricciardo is taking a big risk

Martin Brundle is on the one hand happy with Daniel Ricciardo’s return to Formula 1, on the other hand he is somewhat surprised that he accepted the offer to become an AlphaTauri racer, and believes that the Australian is at great risk.

On Tuesday it was confirmed that Ricciardo was “on loan” to Faenza’s team, where he will replace Nyck de Vries from the Hungarian round and become Yuki Tsunoda’s new teammate. At the same time, after ten stages of the season, AlphaTauri takes last place in the constructors’ championship, and Daniel has repeatedly said that he is only interested in a contract with a competitive team.

“I’m really happy he’s coming back, but to be honest my first reaction was ‘Wow, is Daniel ready for this? – Daniel used to say that he had lost his former enthusiasm and that this had to be restored somehow, so I didn’t think he would agree to such an offer unless there were other agreements behind it. In the sense of “now you do this, and in the future we will do so-and-so.”

I am sure that in those six months that he worked on the simulator and did not speak in Formula 1, it was very difficult for him. Therefore, I can understand the attractiveness of the offer, if I accept it, he will be in 20th position on the starting field.

But for me the most important thing is this: I think if Daniel Ricciardo races, it will benefit the whole of Formula 1, and when I saw that he would have to sit around doing nothing all weekend, I didn’t like that.

According to Brundle, he is ready to give Daniel a few races to adapt to the AlphaTauri car and build a working relationship with the team, but after that Ricciardo should definitely be ahead of his partner in every way.

“This car is probably the slowest in the championship, so Daniel is taking a big risk,” Brundle continued. “He should be ahead of Tsunoda, that’s for sure. He has to be faster than his partner both in qualifying and in the races, that’s what is expected of him. He might be able to outperform what the car is capable of, and if he really manages to get close to the top ten and stay in those positions throughout the race then this might be his saving grace.

From the words of Christian Horner, included in the official statement about Ricciardo, it is clear that Daniel “showed an excellent time” in the tire tests at Silverstone, and it can be understood that this was a major factor in Red Bull’s decision .
However, Brundle doubts this: “You can drive around the track all day, covered in a layer of scrap rubber after the Grand Prix, but that doesn’t say much and I can’t believe that’s why they made the decision.

But just the fact that Daniel got the chance to drive a Red Bull car speaks volumes. Did they do it for something? They did not really hide the fact that they would eventually say goodbye to de Vries. But I worry about Nick because I know he can show better results and deserve a better fate.

When I comment on races, people often hear from me that it’s hard to get into Formula 1, but even harder to stay in it. After all, when you are just on the road, there is confidence in your potential, and then suddenly you are faced with reality and cannot hide from it. De Vries did not even spend half of the season in the championship, he drove a very problematic car and his partner has much more experience.

It is quite clear to me that in the last races he was already on the verge of desperation, and it was clearly palpable. He had incidents he shouldn’t have and it was sad to see… I think he deserved more races for AlphaTauri, although of course I don’t know how effective he was with the team, including meetings with engineers.

We don’t know any of this, but I’m worried about Nick, that he didn’t get more time and didn’t get the support he needed.”