AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost says the team were right to hire Nyck de Vries last year despite having dropped him before the halfway point in his first season.
He said the call to replace de Vries with Daniel Ricciardo from this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix has been “emotional” for the team.De Vries lost his seat following the British Grand Prix. He was one of only two drivers who had failed to score a point over the first 10 races of the season
Many active drivers, including de Vries’ former team mate Yuki Tsunoda, expressed sympathy for him after he was replaced just before the halfway stage of the season. Tost accepts de Vries did not have an easy situation for his first season in Formula 1 with his team, facing many tracks he was inexperienced with.
“First of all, as a rookie – and this is generally for the rookies also for the future – the first half of the season is not so easy because they are racing at many race tracks which they don’t know, like Melbourne, Miami, Saudi Arabia. Then they come to Baku, where it’s a sprint race. That means there’s only FP1 and then it’s already qualifying.
“That means, nowadays, if a young driver comes to Formula 1, he really has to be prepared in the best possible way. Which means, for me, at least 5,000-6,000 kilometres of private testing with an old car, like Alpine did with [Oscar] Piastri. This is the way to go.”
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AlphaTauri currently sit in tenth and last in the constructors’ championship. Tost admits that the relative lack of performance of their car did not make it easier for the 28-year-old.
“It was difficult for him,” Tost accepted. “Our car was not so competitive and if a car is not so good, it’s even more complicated.
“I expected a much better performance in Austria and in Silverstone because both of these tracks Nyck knew quite well, but the performance didn’t come up and then we decided to change him. Also thinking for the second half of the season, where he doesn’t know Singapore, Japan, Mexico, Austin and Qatar, which would not have made it quite easier.”
Red Bull appointed de Vries to their junior team on the back of his one-off appearance for Williams at Monza last year, where he finished in the points. Tost denied the team had signed him too hastily based on that performance.
“There was no possibility [to assess him more], because he didn’t race any more,” he said. “It was, in the end, decided by Red Bull. Afterwards, everyone is more clever. I think, at that time, it was the right decision.”
Tost believes having a veteran like Ricciardo in the car will help them to work out how to improve on the weaknesses of their car.
“Now with Ricciardo we have an experienced driver in there, which also helps us to develop the car to find out better where are the deficiencies of the car and hopefully to improve the performance of the car,” he said.
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MichaelN
21st July 2023, 17:28
“It was, in the end, decided by Red Bull.”
Is he really a team principal when all major decisions are made by others?
How much longer will Red Bull be allowed to have four cars?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st July 2023, 20:21
Yes, it’s a strange position, I’d say he’s not a team principal, because he doesn’t decide his own drivers.
SteveP
21st July 2023, 18:58
Or, Domenicali could admit the sprints are a daft idea and the teams run an old car or two with prospective new drivers racing each other at each race weekend.
I won’t my breath waiting for sense to arrive though.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
21st July 2023, 22:31
This has nothing to do with Nyck being signed, it has everything to do with Daniel having successfully passed all his Red Bull Racing simulator tests. Once he had passed all his tests then it was simply a matter of deciding who should be given the boot. The pecking order is Max, Sergio, Yuki, and then Nyck, so it was Nyck that was given the boot. Sure, there’s lots of excuses were brought out to justify breaking their contract with Nyck, but the reality is Nyck was just that guy in that seat.
floodo1 (@floodo1)
21st July 2023, 23:52
Clearly this