 Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has revealed why Nyck de Vries has been dropped from the Formula One grid and replaced by Daniel Ricciardo. It was announced on Tuesday that De Vries had lost his seat at AlphaTauri, Red Bull's sister-team, after just 10 races following a series of poor performances that leave him bottom of the standings on zero points. Ricciardo is set to drive for the team for the rest of the season, starting with the Hungarian Grand Prix a week on Sunday. There had long been rumours that the Dutchman could be replaced mid-season but even so the news came as a shock given the timing and limited opportunities that he was given to prove himself in what is the worst car on the grid. The Formula 2 and Formula E champion made his, what many felt was long-overdue, F1 debut in Italy last year and an excellent showing for Williams prompted AlphaTauri to snap him up for 2023 but the partnership has failed already. 'We signed Nyck because he performed great at Monza last year,' Marko, head of Red Bull's driver development programme, told de Telegraaf. 'We expected him to be at least equal to his teammate [Yuki Tsunoda] this year, but that wasn't the case. Actually, he was always three-tenths slower. We didn't see any improvement. De Vries scored no points in his 10 races for AlphaTauri (Photo: Getty) 'He is 28-years-old, has a lot of experience and also a lot of knowledge as a test driver in various F1 cars. I don't think you can compare him to a young rookie. 'At the end of April in Baku, he started the weekend well and I thought he was going to perform better, but then he crashed again. Unfortunately, he never once did a super lap that amazed us. 'We had to do something. Why should we wait and what difference do two more races make, if you don't see any improvement? Nyck is a very nice guy, but the speed just wasn't there. Regarding De Vries' F1 future, the Austrian added: 'That will be difficult, I think){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has revealed why Nyck de Vries has been dropped from the Formula One grid and replaced by Daniel Ricciardo.
It was announced on Tuesday that De Vries had lost his seat at AlphaTauri, Red Bull’s sister-team, after just 10 races following a series of poor performances that leave him bottom of the standings on zero points.
Ricciardo is set to drive for the team for the rest of the season, starting with the Hungarian Grand Prix a week on Sunday.
There had long been rumours that the Dutchman could be replaced mid-season but even so the news came as a shock given the timing and limited opportunities that he was given to prove himself in what is the worst car on the grid.