Tost opens door to Ricciardo AlphaTauri drive - on one condition

Ricciardo is currently acting as Red Bull’s reserve driver having seen his McLaren contract terminated a year early at the end of an underwhelming 2022 campaign. 

The 33-year-old Australian is determined to seal a return to the F1 grid on a full-time basis and is reportedly open to driving for AlphaTauri if a seat opened up. 

“The philosophy is quite clear, the performance decides,” Tost said when asked if Ricciardo could appeal for 2024. 

“Of course, the team philosophy is to educate young drivers. But if young drivers are not currently there – they’re coming, some good young drivers, Iwasa is doing a good job, Hadjar is doing a good job, but it’s simply a little bit too early for them. 

“I see them earlier or later in our team but if the time is too early, then maybe we have to find another solution. But this has not been discussed so far. So far everything is like [as usual] with our team.”

Liam Lawson is considered the most likely of Red Bull’s junior drivers to earn a promotion given his strong start to the 2023 Super Formula Championship in Japan. 

“Liam has done a good job when he was driving for us last year in Abu Dhabi and he is currently doing a good job in Japan because it’s quite a tough championship over there,” he added. “As I said before, it’s a performance question.

“We have to find out, we have to see which driver is first of all, available and matured enough and educated enough and ready to go for a Formula 1 car. This we will see. Currently, nothing has been decided.”

Struggling de Vries could be replaced mid-season 

Tost did not rule out the possibility of Nyck de Vries being replaced before the end of the 2023 F1 season. 

The Dutchman has endured a difficult start to life at AlphaTauri and has so far failed to match the impressive performances of teammate Yuki Tsunoda. 

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko recently cast further doubt over de Vries’ future by admitting Christian Horner was right to have reservations about signing him. 

“In Formula 1 every driver has pressure,” Tost said. “We will see how Nyck is doing here, how Nyck is doing in Silverstone because he knows these race tracks.

“We must not forget that the rookie drivers nowadays are really in a difficult situation. Why? If you look to the first part of the season most of the race tracks they don’t know. They haven’t raced in Melbourne before in Formula 2 or Formula 3, they haven’t raced in Saudi Arabia or Miami.

“Baku, maybe, but in Baku we had the sprint race like here: FP1, qualifying for the race and then the qualifying for the sprint race. That means the weekends are flying away. And for the rookie drivers this is really very, very difficult.

“Now at least they come to race tracks which they know. It’s Austria, it’s Silverstone, Spa, Budapest, Monza and I think this helps more. It helps them be more confident.”

Pressed on whether de Vries would be given the full year or could be replaced during the season, Tost replied: “Nyck decides. Not the team. If Nyck shows a good performance, why should we change him?”