Ricciado replaces Nick De Vriies

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Originally Posted by The Black Knight

The Red Bull fold is the last place I'd want to start my F1 career as a driver. You have a moron like Marko in charge that doesn't understand the difficulties drivers face in getting up to speed. De Vries was still a rookie with only a couple of days testing under his belt with a piece of shit car. And lets not forget how Kvyatt was replaced with Verstappen even though he was out performing Ricciardo at the time. He was certainly performing better than Perez is now.

Marko needs to go. He has destroyed so many talented drivers careers.

But yes, De Vries should have gone to Williams where they would have been more understanding and given him some time to get up to speed. Shame - he's a major talent.

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The interesting thing is, DeVries being available puts a lot of pressure on Sargeant. Sargeant has to improve noticeably or he may lose his seat to De Vries.

Redbull can be uncompromising, sometimes cryptically unreasonable when it comes to how they treat their young drivers. It was bad enough for Sainz, Gasly, Albon, and Ricciardo to leave involuntarily. It is simply the most risky place to start an F1 career. Ricciardo is clearly desperate for another chance, hence why he has taken a very risky opportunity with a team he knows full well how tough they can be on their drivers.

I just watched the Sky F1 podcast with Jaime Alguersuari on what it was like being in the Redbull young driver's program. It was very insightful. if you have not seen it, check it out here

Based on what he had to say, De Vries was going to be dropped anyway. Just the manner in which was dropped is what is shocking. But it does not really imply De Vries is not capable of F1 success in a more supporting team where he does not feel pressured from the onset to perform better than his teammate with more experience with the car.

De Vries faced the same scenario that Ricciardo faced with Lando Norris. Norris with a season headstart with the car outperformed Ricciardo consistently which lead to his departure from Mclaren. Age and experience do not mean much in the face of relative experience with the equipment. The driver with more experience with the car would always have an edge over the new driver. It did not mean Ricciardo had become crap and lost his competitive edge. It simply meant he could not find his best under the pressure to perform at a level better than his younger teammate with more experience with the car. The same is true for De Vries. Pressure forces errors to surface and cause drivers to have a forced approach to driving when all they need to do is to relax and let their talent surface and flow.

It would be a shame if we are deprived of seeing this truly talented Dutch driver show his true talent in an F1 team. Much like how we were deprived of seeing the true talent of Alguersuari and Buemi in a race winning F1 car.

I think the rivalry between Yuki and Ricardo is about to intensify in the next half of the season.

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Originally Posted by Nitrodaze

I think the rivalry between Yuki and Ricardo is about to intensify in the next half of the season.

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I would agree. Both are fighting for their F1 lives.