Nyck de Vries took longer than most on his road to Formula One then fate struck at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix as the dutch driver substituted for the too sick to drive Alex Albon of the Williams team.
De Vries famously qualified in the top ten, something of a rarity for a Williams car, and then went on to score points on debut as he took the chequered flag in ninth position.
De Vries admits “too many mistakes”
He demolished his Canadian team mate in both qualifying and the race and while Nicholas Latifi was closing in on his sixtieth Grand Prix start.
Now de Vries finally has his full time seat at AlphaTauri though despite being a champion in Formula Two and Formula E the dutchman has failed to live up to his hype. Nyck is one of just two drivers having failed to score a point after eight races this year.
Questions have been raised as to whether de Vries has what it takes to be in Fomrula One and he himself has admitted recently to making “too many mistakes.”
That said the AlphaTauri car is a bit of a pig rooted firmly to the bottom of the constructors’ championship with just two points scored by Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda.
Tost blames poor AlphaTauri car
Having made a poor start to the. Season it seems the outgoing team boss Franz Tost is laying the blame fairly and squarely on the car.
“The engineers are telling me that we will make some good progress, but I don’t trust them anymore. I just want to see the lap time, because this is the only thing which counts,” an angry Tost told assembled media.
The recent race in Canada was another poor showing for AlphTauri with Yuki Tsunoda claiming he struggled for pace.
Yer Nyck de Vries is not phased by his pointless season to date knowing just a P9 would see him draw level with his far more experienced team mate, now in his third year of Formula One.
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Tost “he knows how to win championships”
“Our aggressive strategy worked until the virtual safety car and our pace was really good. The timing didn’t work in our favour and we couldn’t gain as much as we wanted to, struggling with pace after that,” said de Vries.
“It’s not the position I wanted to finish, but I had some good overtakes, so it was good learning. Looking ahead [to Austria], I need a clean race weekend with a higher qualifying position, to maximise our chances of scoring points in the future.”
Franz Tost has confirmed he remains positive about his young steed: “I said to him he should stay concentrated, he should stay confident because we all know he can do a good job,” Tost told formula1.com this week.
“He won races in Formula 3 and Formula 2, he won championships – he won the Formula E World Championship. That means he knows how to win races and win championships.
“He just needs to get the confidence – and we have to provide him with a good car.”
Horner “not a fan of de Vries”
Tost backing de Vries is a real vote of confidence for the young dutch driver because he in fact lobbied the Red Bull hierarchy to recruit Mick Schumacher to replace the outgoing Pierre Gasly.
It now appears Christian Horner was opposed to the recruitment of de Vries too as Helmut Marko reveals speaking to the F1 inside Line podcast.
When asked whether he is often in disagreement with Horner over driver appointments, Marko replied: “Not often, but sometimes we do. The last one… I would say de Vries.
“Basically it’s AlphaTauri, but we’re a big family and we get opinions. He [Horner] was not a fan of De Vries.”
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Marko backed de Vries as “team leader”
Never one to miss the moment to make, Marko uses the time in front of the microphone to give his driver a wake up call. Based on current performance, “I would say at the moment it looks like he’s [Horner] right.”
Marko is presently being served up humble pie for desert at each race given his demand the team recruit de Vries despite Tost and Horner’s reservations.
“Yuki is young and does not have the background and experience that Nyck has,” said Marko speaking to Dutch Motorsport after they had announced de Vries was joining the team.
“We will see how it goes next year, but looking at his experience and his personality, then De Vries has to become the team leader of AlphaTauri.
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Of course with fourteen races to go it could yet be all change at AlphaTauri and de Vries may yet exlipse his far more experienced team mate.
Marko once again turns to the thorny matter of why he did not want to recruit Mick Schumacher. The Red Bull advisor has been accused by Ralph Schumacher of having something against the family name.
“[It was] Franz Tost who wanted Mick Schumacher, but Mick was with Ferrari Academy for his whole career,” explained Helmut Marko.
“Basically, AlphaTauri is a junior team. De Vries is different to Schumacher in that he had just one race, very successful in Monza, so he could fit into our philosophy.”
Failing to appoint a junior driver to replace Pierre Gasly was a tough enough call but at least de Vries is an F1 rookie unlike Schumacher who has two years in the sport already under his belt.
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Leclerc ⚔️ Verstappen
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— Formula 1 (@F1) June 26, 2023
