AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda says his former team mate Nyck de Vries deserved more races before losing his race seat just ten rounds into his rookie season.
De Vries was replaced after the British Grand Prix by Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull’s third driver, after failing to score a single point over the first ten rounds of the championship.Speaking ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Tsunoda told media including RaceFans that he believes his former team mate deserved more time in the car before losing his seat.
“I think so,” Tsunoda said. “I think just 10 races, especially at a couple of tracks that he didn’t know, I think so.
“At the same time, I know what Red Bull’s side is, what they’re saying. But I think he deserved at least until probably the summer break. I was thinking like that.”
Tsunoda said he had a good relationship with De Vries and that the pair had exchanged messages after news broke that he had lost his seat.
“I told him what I felt and also appreciation to him and he gave me a very nice message back,” he said. “So obviously we’re friends and I felt he was a really nice guy and a respectful person. I can respect a lot of things from him.”
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Tsunoda has scored AlphaTauri’s only points of the 2023 season so far. The team lies tenth and last in the standings on just two points. Asked if he felt the AlphaTauri was an especially difficult car to drive for a newcomer, Tsunoda said he believed the car his raced during his rookie season two years ago was more challenging.
“To be honest, compared to the 2021 car, this year’s car is, for me, probably less difficult to adapt to compared to a 2021 car,” he explained.
“The 2021 cars had much more downforce, which was a huge step compared to other categories. This year’s car fees like last year’s car – the 18-inch tyres and less grip in the low-speed, it’s slower in those corners. So I don’t feel like it’s super-hard to adapt, but it still is hard. Especially as each team has their own characteristics and probably the AlphaTauri’s not that easy as well.”
Asked if he believes the AlphaTauri is the slowest car on the grid, Tsunoda replied “yeah, I think so.”
“For me, my perspective, we’re not definitely like P8 or P9,” he continued. “It’s not ideal. But the good thing is we are having upgrades every race so far and we’re going to bring a couple of stuff to this race, so hopefully we can make a bit of a little step each race.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained the team’s decision not to keep de Vries until the summer break when he spoke to the official F1 website.
“I think the situation was clear,” he said. “It was a question of ‘okay, what’s the point in waiting?’ If we’ve got to do something, we may as well get on with it and give Daniel 12 races to see what he’s capable of.”
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2023 Hungarian Grand Prix
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BasCB (@bascb)
20th July 2023, 11:20
Hard not to agree with Yuki there. But I guess RBR know Daniel is solid at Hungary and giving him a shot now means they can reflect on how he does during the summer break and set steps to get him up to speed better.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
20th July 2023, 12:31
I don’t know what difference two more races would have made. I could’ve understood if it was five or six races or more. But if you’re not giving them what they want over a sample of ten then I don’t think a sample of 12 is a huge difference maker.
notagrumpyfan
20th July 2023, 13:14
It opens up the opportunity to drop Ricciardo in the Red Bull after the summer break.
But first he has to impress in the Alpha Tauri, and Perez continue to struggle.
Also I would like to see more quality performances before ignoring his prolonged struggles at McLaren.
MichaelN
20th July 2023, 13:04
Ricciardo has only scored points in Hungary once since he left Red Bull (8th in 2020).
Ricciardo certainly had some good drives in his career, but the problem is that those races are ever longer ago and haven’t been replaced with more recent examples.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th July 2023, 23:31
There’s monza 2021, it’s certainly not longer ago, and you know I’m not one who just says “he won, that’s what counts”, I looked at the whole performance that weekend and I was like “is this really mclaren ricciardo?”.
Jere (@jerejj)
20th July 2023, 11:55
I agree, but Horner’s point is also valid.
jhg103 (@joshgeake)
20th July 2023, 12:36
He got 10 races – what difference would another 2 make?
MacLeod (@macleod)
20th July 2023, 13:39
He is a kind of wizard at Spa so that would help….
Antz (@antznz)
20th July 2023, 15:09
@macleod I think the issue is RB need to know how good Yuki really is. Nick doesn’t help answer that. It’s unfortunate for Nick but I understand RB needing to look at the bigger picture, especially with Perez in his current state.
MacLeod (@macleod)
21st July 2023, 7:34
@antznz Your right offcourse but i would love to see Nick in action on one of his favarite circuit.
I do understand the why i had hoped he would get atleast those circuits.
Francesco (@schivo69)
20th July 2023, 12:51
I think Yuki is getting nervous, with RB starting to cut ties with Honda he is worried that his turn may come soon…
MichaelN
20th July 2023, 13:06
It will, what other team would want to hire him? It’s pretty obvious why he’s there, and why he’s being kept on despite not showing anything of note, even when the Red Bulls he had were capable of much more. This year it’s obviously harder given how bad the car is, but driving a Minardi didn’t stop Alonso from impressing back in 2001 either, so it’s not a great excuse.
Sumedh
20th July 2023, 13:43
I think the reason Red Bull didn’t even want to wait till summer break is because the 1st race after summer break would have been Nyck’s home race. Imagine the backlash Red Bull would get if they dropped him just before that.
SteveP
20th July 2023, 18:45
Especially if the combined Tsunoda/de Vries graphs crossed over. Tsunoda has been going down and de Vries up.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th July 2023, 23:35
Wow, that’s a really bad look for red bull about their japanese preference then.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
20th July 2023, 22:39
The situation only became clear when Daniel was driving the simulator the way Christian wanted. Until then the opposite situation was clear: Nyck was at least as good as Daniel, and maybe even the better driver.