Vettel: Very happy for Ricciardo but brutal for De Vries

Ricciardo and Vettel were teammates at Red Bull in 2014, the year in which Ricciardo out-qualified the German 10- 9 and beat him 13-5 in races that season. Of course, Vettel, departed for Ferrari the following year and like Ricciardo never found the spark he had with RBR.

Speaking to reporters at Goodwood this weekend, Vettel said of Ricciardo's return: "I'm very happy for Daniel, very happy for him. I like him, of course, I've raced him and I met him in testing when I tried the 1993 McLaren for this weekend. I'm very, very happy for him."

The victim in this piece is no doubt De Vries who defied everyone's predictions by flopping up against his erratic AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsuonda. Hardly a yardstick of top F1 talent, but nevertheless did enough to reveal Nyck's shortcomings. And not doing enough to convince his bosses he is the real deal.

The once highly-rated Dutchman simply did not cut it in the ten races he had this year with AlphaTauri, in the wake of that marvellous 2022 Italian Grand Prix fairytale points-scoring F1 debut with Williams. That unforgettable show he put on got him the drive. The proverbial star was born, and about time too for many believed the 27-year-old should've been in F1 sooner.

But De Vries proved everyone wrong. His form/talent/speed mysteriously disappeared. Hence he paid the price. Only ten races on the big stage to prove himself is downright cruel, Vettel lamented: "On the other hand, you also have to be honest. Of course, it's a shame for Nyck how it ends.

"I think he had a great opportunity. Maybe it didn't go the way he or the people expected it to. It's also a bit hard when it ends so suddenly. It's brutal," said Vettel, fearing it may impact the Dutchman's career beyond F1.

"I met him for the first time last year and he seemed like a really good person and he's a good driver. He's won the Formula 2 championship, he's won international championships. So he's very well respected and I hope that kind of dip doesn't take away from his career. People tend to do that and that's not right."

"Maybe those ten races weren't as good as they could have been. We don't know why, firstly, from the outside, and secondly, he's still a very good driver. So I also understand that it's very tough for him, and I hope people don't see that dent," added Vettel.

It also turns out that former Red Bull stalwart Mark Webber warned Ricciardo not to defect to Renault, but rather stay and dominate with Verstappen, much like the older Australian did with Vettel.

Webber recalled Ricciardo's move to the Renault team. Headed at the time by Red Bull enemy number one Cyril Abiteboul, dangling more money than Dan had ever dreamt of. An offer he could not refuse.

But Dan never found the magic he had when driving for RBR. Stats show that in 100 starts for the team, of his eight Grand Prix victories seven were won when he raced for the Bulls. In the 82 F1 races since he departed, he won one more time: Monza 2021 for McLaren.

But Webber told Motortsport-Total that he did try convince Daniel not to move: "I was very keen for him to stay at Red Bull. I think he knows I tried to persuade him to stay all those years ago. But obviously, he really wanted to go to Renault at the time. Then he went to McLaren, took a year off and now he's back."

"The stopwatch never lies. You either put pressure on someone else, or you're under pressure yourself. Now he's back and he has to assert himself against Yuki quickly. Hopefully, he can show strong performances," said Webber.

Ricciardo resumes his F1 career next weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix, a race he won in 2014. It will be his 233rd start in the top flight. He made his Red Bull-funded F1 debut at the 2011 British Grand Prix with Hispania Racing Team (HRT).