During their short time together as teammates, Nyck de Vries left a lot for Yuki Tsunoda to reflect on. The Japanese driver was impressed by de Vries’ knowledge and ‘language proficiency.’ Regarding him as inspiring and knowledgeable, Tsunoda hailed de Vries in very high regard. However, Red Bull chief Helmut Marko decided to invalidate this claim. He feels it was de Vries’ ‘English’ that actually impressed Tsunoda.
Red Bull fired de Vries after a series of underwhelming performances earlier this month. Many pundits and most fans felt that he did not get enough time. But for the AlphaTauri and Marko, 10 races were enough to send him packing, even though it was his rookie season.
Even though de Vries is a figure of the past at Red Bull, Marko has now stepped up to discredit the good qualities Tsunoda had to share about his ex-teammate.
Helmut Marko believes Yuki Tsunoda was manipulated
Marko, the Red Bull chief advisor, refused to label de Vries as a rookie. According to him, it was the Dutchman himself who didn’t want to be treated like a rookie. The former Mercedes reserve driver wanted to lead by example. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite turn out the way he would have hoped. Additionally, Marko kept taking jabs at him and his performance. This continues even after his unceremonious sacking.
According to a Reddit post, the Red Bull taskmaster said to LaoLa1 when asked if he agrees with Tsunoda’s opinion on de Vries: “De Vries has spoken quite a lot and his perfect English probably fascinated Yuki.”
🗣️ | Yuki Tsunoda on Nyck de Vries
“I had an enjoyable time over the past ten races with Nyck. I learned from him, and we also had a good time away from the track.“
“He had plenty of experience in other categories and gave the team good feedback based on his knowledge. He had… pic.twitter.com/pjA0r7hcya
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) July 19, 2023
“De Vries already drove almost all Mercedes-driven chassis. So he has a lot of experience and was actually no longer a rookie for us. Unfortunately, the speed at Nyck was not right,” he added.
Following his immediate dismissal, the 28-year-old was replaced by former Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. As for de Vries, rumors suggest that he will return to Formula E, where he became a world champion back in 2021.
Is Nyck de Vries returning to Formula E?
Immediately after de Vries was shown the exit door by Red Bull, he was spotted with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. Nothing official came out of either camp, but de Vries could be meeting with Wolff to sort out his racing future.
Multiple sources stated that de Vries is close to making his return to Formula E. According to The Race, he is likely to join the Nissan Formula E team. His experience in this particular series will be invaluable to the Japanese team. Particularly because, they too have championship ambitions.
If that move doesn’t pan out, Nyck de Vries can end up as the Mercedes reserve driver, alongside Mick Schumacher. Notably, this is something tha could happen, because of the recent interest shown by the Silver Arrows.
