Nyck de Vries said the last two races marked an improvement for him following the difficulties he encountered in his first events as a full-time F1 driver.
After finishing 14th in the first two races, De Vries was taken out of the Australian Grand Prix by Logan Sargeant. He had a particularly tough weekend in Baku where he tangled with his team mate in the sprint race and crashed out of the grand prix on the 10th lap. Miami went little better as he hit Lando Norris at the start and finished 18th.However De Vries said the two most recent races in Monaco and Spain were more encouraging. He was one of few drivers to make a single pit stop in the rain-hit Monaco race, finishing 12th ahead of his team mate Yuki Tsunoda. He produced another clean performance in Spain where he came 14th.
“I think the last two races were very positive,” said De Vries. “Monaco was a solid, clean weekend and over the whole Barcelona event we showed a strong performance.”
De Vries was left on the back foot in qualifying in Spain after spinning twice at turn 11 which ruined his tyres. “It was a shame I ran out of new tyres for Q2 because I’d have had a good shot at qualifying better, but these things can happen in tricky circumstances. In the race, I had a good start, but my inside line was compromised by two other cars losing time together.
“There is still room for improvement, but I can definitely see we have good potential, so I’m continuing to focus on progressing and working the way I have recently been doing.”
De Vries is one of two drivers yet to score a point this season, the other being fellow rookie Sargeant. However he believes AlphaTauri, who are ninth in the constructors’ championship thanks to Tsunoda’s two 10th-place finishes, are making progress with their car.
“The team has done a great job over the last few races and I can see a clear upward trend as we are getting closer to the top 10. They have put in a lot of time, work and effort into better development of the car and bringing that to the track. It has definitely paid off in terms of competitiveness.
“Having said that, the midfield is so tight, I don’t think you can always purely judge the development success on the final result, as you need more than performance to get a result in that midfield group.”
This weekend’s race will be the first time he has competed at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. “It’s a very particular track,” said De Vries, “when you just look at the map, it seems like a simple layout but it’s quite tricky.
“While most of the circuits we race on are all merging towards the same safety standards, run-off areas, kerbs and even the infrastructure, Canada is a track that is still unique and has its own special character.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2023 F1 season
- FIA president cleared of alleged interference in two 2023 races
- First week viewing figures for new Drive to Survive season fall again
- Max who? Drive to Survive season six prefers its favourite faces
- RaceFans’ complete 2023 season review
- The F1 drivers who pulled off the 10 biggest charges through the field in 2023
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
15th June 2023, 9:32
All he needs to do is keep working and getting better at understanding and driving the car, seems like he’s doing alright with it. Rookies just need some time these days. The car just isn’t that good so not having any points isn’t that bad, it’ll come.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th June 2023, 9:53
The last two events were indeed encouraging & if he can keep up this upward trend as the season progresses, I think he’ll secure his stay in the team for next season.
However, he still hasn’t finished a race higher than his teammate on merit, given he finished higher in Monaco only because of that brake issue.
Both qualifying outperformances were on merit, though.
tio zam
15th June 2023, 14:23
mm yes he saved his carreer, now ferrari,mercedes and rbr are fighting to sign him