Horner relentless: 'De Vries was always a stopgap’'

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was not a fan the idea of giving Nyck de Vries a seat within the Red Bull family and is happy to see Daniel Ricciardo return to the king class, the Brit openly tells the F1 Nation Podcast.

According to Horner, even before Ricciardo's tyre test, there were discussions with him about possibly taking over the seat from Nyck de Vries, who could not live up to expectations. The fact that the Dutchman's Formula 1 career is now over does not mean he is a bad driver. "He is very capable driver and is a former Formula E and Formula 2 champion. He has a lot of experience." But that very experience seemed to get in his way. "Even though he was new to Formula 1, the expectations were very high because he was so experienced."

'De Vries was a stopgap'

According to the Red Bull team boss, De Vries' arrival did not fit within the Red Bull ideology. "I just didn’t see how it fitted within the junior program. It was always a stopgap." According to the Briton, De Vries never managed to convince, leading to the idea of turning things around. "From a Red Bull Racing perspective, the most interesting option for me was to see how Daniel performed. So that was the decision that was made. It all happened pretty quick."