Daniel Ricciardo will make a sensational return to front-line Formula 1 racing at the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, with the Australian set to replace Nyck de Vries at the AlphaTauri team for the rest of the season.
It took him 3 years to win the F2 championship and during the year he won, Latifi was his biggest competition.
The year he won the FE championship, there were tons of issues with the structure of qualifying and the races, and the championship standings don’t reflect the skill of the drivers well. His average finishing position that year was 11th out of 22 drivers and he was in the best team. The following year with a revised system that was much better, he finished 9th while he teammate won the championship.
Wasn’t aware of his background… what made him standout to get the F1 seat? Surely the people making decisions knew all of this
Last year during the Italian GP in Monza, de Vries did an FP session for Aston Martin. That same weekend Albon had a sudden case of appendicitis, taking him out of the GP for urgent medical treatment. Since de Vries was already present, Williams decided to put him in Albons seat. He finished the race 10th, after which multiple teams were considering to give him a seat for the 2023 season.
Edit: it was 9th position.
