Japanese Yuki Tsunoda and Australian Daniel Ricciardo will drive for AlphaTauri again in 2024, the Formula 1 team announced on Saturday.
New Zealander Liam Lawson, 21, who has replaced the injured Ricciardo since the end of August, will retain his role as reserve driver in the Italian team, despite performances which continue to impress on his F1 debut.
“Next year, the technical regulations will remain largely unchanged (…) and it was therefore logical to opt for continuity in our team of drivers,” explained team principal Franz Tost, replaced last year. next by the Frenchman Laurent Mekies in this position.
The announcement was made on the sidelines of the Japanese Grand Prix held this weekend at Suzuka.
Tsunoda has participated in 56 Grands Prix, with his best result a 4th place in Abu Dhabi in 2021. He finished his first season ranked 14th in the world, far from his teammate Pierre Gasly, 9th and now Alpine driver. In 2022, with a less efficient car, Tsunoda finished 17th in the drivers’ championship.
For his third season in F1, the 23-year-old Japanese is currently in this same place overall, with only 3 points after 15 rounds.
Former driver at Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) in 2012 and 2013 – then at Red Bull between 2014 and 2018 – Ricciardo, 34, has won eight F1 GPs. In addition to Red Bull and Toro Rosso, the Australian, who arrived in F1 in 2011, also raced for HRT (2011) and Renault (2019-2020).
Having become a McLaren driver in 2021, he finished last season in a modest 11th place in the championship, before being replaced in the English team by his compatriot Oscar Piastri.
Third driver for the Red Bull team at the start of the season, Ricciardo was called up by AlphaTauri this summer to replace the Dutchman Nyck de Vries until the end of the season, who paid for his lack of results.
However, the Australian only competed in two GPs (Hungary and Belgium) before fracturing his hand during testing in the Netherlands at the end of August.
Still convalescing, he was replaced by Liam Lawson who, after his 3rd GP in the premier category last week in Singapore, finished 9th in the race at the wheel of his modest single-seater, thus scoring his first points in F1.
AlphaTauri is a Red Bull “satellite” team, designed as a launching pad towards the team currently leading the championship with its world champion Max Verstappen.