Eight races into his rookie season and Nyck de Vries has come under huge scrutiny, but did AlphaTauri even want him to begin with?
Nyck de Vries is very much a key figure in the headlines ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, following a shocking admission by Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko.
The Dutch driver has found the going tough so far in 2023, to the extent where only himself and fellow rookie Logan Sargeant are yet to score a point. As a result, he sits joint-last in the Drivers’ Championship, a position no driver wants to find themselves.
The 28-year-old has been prone to errors in the opening eight rounds of the season, most recently at the Canadian Grand Prix. In Montreal, he forced himself and Kevin Magnussen off the circuit, causing him to fall to the very back. The blunder ended any slim hope of a points finish, something which was definitely achievable.
The Scuderia AlphaTauri driver also made noticeable mistakes in Azerbaijan and Miami, two races which certainly didn’t increase his market price. Quite clearly, his rookie campaign is yet to stun the world, causing his future with the team to be questioned already.
The Uitwellingerga-born driver has been shown a “yellow card” by Marko, indicating that the pressure is certainly on De Vries to improve, and quickly. Putting increased pressure on a rookie is a dangerous game though, especially so early in his F1 career.
Why Did AlphaTauri Choose De Vries?
Due to his struggles this season, some have questioned why AlphaTauri signed De Vries in the first place. The answer is pretty simple, the 2022 Italian Grand Prix.
De Vries was present in Monza last season to drive for the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team in Free Practice 1, due to being Mercedes’ reserve driver. Staggeringly, all but one Mercedes customer team used De Vries during an FP1 session last season, as part of a young driver regulation.
De Vries assumed his weekend was over following the FP1 session for Aston Martin; however, he received an unexpected call on the Saturday morning. De Vries received a call from Williams Racing asking him to replace Alex Albon, following a diagnosis of appendicitis for the Thai driver.
Just like that, De Vries found himself in Albon’s car from Free Practice 3 onwards, giving him his time to shine. Shine he did, as the Dutchman not only progressed to Q2 in qualifying, but he also finished ninth in the race. This was staggeringly the Grove-based team’s joint-best result of the year, something which caught Marko’s attention.
Almost immediately after his heroic debut, De Vries was jetting off for a meeting with Marko, which ultimately ended up with him signing a contract to replace Alpine-bound Pierre Gasly. Marko was clearly a big fan of De Vries, who also claimed the Formula 2 title in 2019 and the Formula E crown in 2021.
However, with a few days until Oracle Red Bull Racing’s home race in Spielberg, the 80-year-old has admitted that a key figure in the Red Bull family didn’t agree with De Vries being signed for 2023.
Driver of the day and finishing in the points on your F1 debut, what a day for Nyck de Vries in Monza. pic.twitter.com/8s0ANDYPyT
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) September 12, 2022
What Did Marko Say?
Ahead of Red Bull’s all-important home race at the Red Bull Ring, Marko appeared on the Inside Line podcast, where he revealed that Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner “was not a fan of De Vries”.
Marko made the jaw-dropping comment when asked whether himself and Horner ever have differing opinions over who to sign, something he answered brutally honestly, saying, as reported by PlanetF1.com:
“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.”
If that wasn’t bad enough for De Vries to hear, the Austrian went as far as stating that based on his current performances, Horner is “right” to have been against signing him, saying:
“I would say at the moment it looks like he’s right.”
It would be safe to assume that the brutal honesty perhaps hasn’t done wonders for De Vries’ confidence, ahead of one of AlphaTauri’s more important weekends of the season as Red Bull’s sister team.
