F1 racing team Alpha Tauri has dropped Nyck de Vries mid-season in favour of former Red Bull rider Daniel Ricciardo in what became the most shocking news of the season thus far.

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Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko was asked the reason for the driver change, and he was in his usual way as brutal as possible. "We contracted Nyck because he performed well at Monza last year," Marko began.

"We expected him to at least be equal to his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda this year but that was not the case. He was always three-tenths of a second slower. We didn’t see any improvements," he added.

"He’s 28, has a lot of experience, and has also been able to gain a lot of knowledge as a test driver in various F1 cars. You can’t compare him to a young rookie. In Baku, he started the weekend well but then he crashed again. We had to do something," Marko insisted.

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When asked if giving the rider more time could've worked wonders, Marko clapped back by saying, "Why should we wait? What do two more races matter if you don’t see any improvement? Nyck is a very nice guy but the speed wasn’t there."