[Erik van Haren] Nyck de Vries immediately sent away from AlphaTauri. Daniel Ricciardo will replace him in Hungary next week.

This will be interesting if Danny can’t outperform Tsunoda. I really like Danny but I think people are going to be a bit surprised. Again.

By all accounts the AT is a disaster to drive and Danny already had a really bad time in a better McLaren.

I would hope they’ve had Danny in the simulators a bunch and have a reasonable expectation on his performance
- While that’s probably true, Red Bull or rather Marko said not that long ago his sim work was not up to par.
  
  Here’s to hoping he can perform decently at least!
  
  Edit - funnily enough I just looked and now there’s a recent article where Horner says he’s extremely competitive on the sim lmao. Classic Red Bull.

IT’S HAPPENING!!

let’s be real though, DeVries was not in Red Bulls future. he was merely a temporary seat warmer

I actually thought they would put Lawson in that seat

but this move makes me think Perez is on the hot seat and they want to see if Yuki can beat Danny Ric, if so then Yuki moves up next year?

DR is definitely a benchmark for Yuki. If Yuki can’t beat DR there’s no chance of the RB seat. If he does beat DR I see him in the RB next year. Otherwise Perez for max 1 more year and then put Lawson up against Iwasa

It was expected, but not THIS fast.

But why? He’s shown before in the Williams that he can perform with a decent car. The AT is simply shit, Tsunoda isn’t doing much better and it’s not that he got to where he is without a few fuckups/meltdowns of his own.

EDIT: as burn points out below, he didn’t race for Mercedes but for Williams, I’ve updated my post to reflect the correct team
- Tsunoda was doing better though. Sure if you look at the points and standings you don’t see a big difference. But during race day he almost always managed to increase the gap significantly between him and de Vries during the first stint. The problem is that the car is shit and loses performance at around the 2/3 mark, because the tires lose grip or the brakes become slippery. That’s when he lost significant places in a lot of races
- It was expected because the negativeness in the media and from Marko/Horner. I saw a interview last week and when Marko was asked any question about de Vries his face really turned sour. Yes the AT is shit, but Tsunoda is outperforming de Vries most of the time. My guess was that he would be out before Zandvoort but not before the summer break.
- As far as I know NDV never raced a Mercedes. He performs well in practice all the time, it’s just when it comes to the race that he makes mistake after mistake.
  
  Tsunoda is doing much better, and more vitally was part of the RB academy. NDV was a hire outside their academy and they’re regretting it. Tsunoda also didn’t come into his rookie year loudly proclaiming that he’s “not a rookie” and shouldn’t be treated like one.

yuki about to win a 'lead driver' battle with two separate people in the same season

Wow! When's the last time a driver was straight up let go during the season?

This is at least the third time it's happened at Red Bull.

Verstappen replaced Kvyat mid-season 2016 and as mentioned already Gasly->Albon 2019 and now this.

Helmut Marko doesn't take prisoners.
- I wasn't into F1 yet, so I can't say I was aware. But TIL.
Gasly, when he got kicked out of RB in 2019?
- TIL.
Does Mazepin count?
- My memory isn't great as far as F1 is concerned. Was he dropped mid-season?

anyone ELI5 what lead to this? this team is at the bottom of the standings and I dont remember drivers just getting kicked out mid season

My guess is that Perez performances are worrying, so they need some data on Danny Ric in a car to get a handle on both him and Yuki in case Checo doesn't shape up and drastic action needs to be taken for next year.

If RB thinks other teams could catch up to them, they need a number 2 driver that can support Max at the front, and right now Checo isn't doing that.

It's been clear for a while that NdV has no future in RB anyway, so they're not losing much doing this.
The only reason I can think of, is that they want a benchmark to test Riccardo against. To assess their options for the main team for next year.

Or to install Riccardo as the bench mark for their talents in the feeding series.

We'll see if Ricciardo really does still have it. I think Lawson was the better option. Yes he's currently competing in Super Formula but they did it before with Gasly in 2017. It makes more sense to me to try their strongest young driver.

RB almost has to give Lawson the second AT seat next year. He’s their best junior right now and if they can’t find him a seat it’s not going to be great

Chris Medland seems to confirm this

That’s a bit radical, he wasn’t so far behind Tsunoda…

Sheesh, that's a bit harsh. He wasn't doing great, but this is quite the turnaround. I'm very curious what Ricciardo can do in that tractor

I think they are putting him there to decide between him and Yuki to takes Perez's seat in 2024. Lawson will move AT in 2024.