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Helmut Marko believes Nyck de Vries still has a racing future, just not in F1
Despite sacking AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries this week, Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko still believes that De Vries has a future in racing.
Perhaps, however, not in Formula 1.
Speaking with Dutch outlet De Telegraaf, the Red Bull advisor outlined the reasoning behind the shock move to replace De Vries with current reserve Daniel Ricciardo for next week’s Hungarian Grand Prix, rather than waiting until the summer break.
“We had to do something,” stated Marko. “Why would we wait? And what does it matter if we kept him for two more races when you don’t see any improvements? Nyck is a really nice guy, but the speed just wasn’t there.”
Marko outlined how the organization kept tabs on De Vries, waiting for improvement from the 28-year-old driver. Improvement that never really came. After Marko issued the well-documented “yellow card” to De Vries, the rookie responded with his best finish of the year, a P12 at the Monaco Grand Prix.
But that turnaround lasted all of one race, and when Red Bull looked at his season on the whole, the development was nowhere to be found.
“In April in Baku he started the weekend well and I expected him to perform better, but then he crashed again,” added Marko. Unfortunately he hasn’t driven a single lap that amazed us.”
Red Bull’s advisor then pointed to his status as a rookie, pushing back on that notion. After all, De Vries is 28 years old, and brought a ton of experience to the cockpit at AlphaTauri. As such, Marko suggested, he could not be evaluated as any other rookie.
Which is something the driver himself wanted.
“He is 28 years old, has ample experience and has had the opportunity to gain plenty of knowledge as a test driver in various Formula 1 cars. In my opinion he cannot be compared to a young rookie,” said Marko.
“Nyck was contracted because he had an excellent performance in Monza last year. We expected that he would be at least matching the performance of his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, but that wasn’t the case,” added the Red Bull advisor. “He was three tenths of a second too slow, continuously, and there was no improvement.”
That response also points to the notion that the switch was made to get a clearer idea of just how far Tsunoda has come as a driver. Tsunoda has fared much better than De Vries this season — out-qualifying him in seven of the ten races and scoring the only points for the team — but is that a factor of his growth, or De Vries’ struggles?
This response from Marko also points to that question: “It remains to be seen how Ricciardo will hold up against Tsunoda. I think Yuki is underestimated by a lot of people. The AlphaTauri is a difficult car to drive, but Yuki has proven that it is possible to get good results with it.”
As for why the switch was made to Ricciardo — which is a suggestion Marko brushed aside a few weeks ago — the former racer pointed to Ricciardo’s test session at Silverstone this week as a reason.
“His lap times were competitive, on three different compounds,” Marko explained. “If Ricciardo wasn’t quick enough, we would have had to do something else. But since AlphaTauri is last in the constructor standings, so we had to bring about something. And usually a driver change does that. Ricciardo brings new energy to the team.”
Another suggestion in the media — including from yours truly — is that the move was made to perhapse put pressure on Sergio Pérez. The current Red Bull driver does sit second in the Drivers’ standings, but has not seen Q3 since the Miami Grand Prix at the start of May.
Marko brushed that aside as well.
“Checo is second in the world championship, so it would make no sense to get rid of him now,” said Marko. “His race at Silverstone was good, again, but he needs to improve in qualifying.”
However, one cannot help but see that language “get rid of him now” and ask: What about in 2024? Or beyond?
As for De Vries himself, Marko believes the now-deposed driver still has a future in racing.
Just not, perhaps, in F1.
“It’s going to be difficult, but at the same time I think he saw this coming,” said Marko of a return to F1 for De Vries.
“I think he can have a great career in endurance racing,”
