Sacked By Helmut Marko for Lack of Performances, “Fast” Nyck De Vries Taught a Lot to Red Bull Aspirant Yuki Tsunoda

Last week, Red Bull announced the return of Daniel Ricciardo to the F1 grid. He will replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri, whose F1 career got cut short just 10 races into it. The Red Bull management felt that de Vries was nowhere close to matching teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s level. However, Tsunoda admitted that the Dutchman helped him a lot during their time together in Faenza.

Tsunoda comprehensively outperformed de Vries during the entirety of their short stint together at AlphaTauri. In 10 races, de Vries managed to scrape and finish ahead of Tsunoda just two times.

Red Bull felt that the gap between the two drivers was way too big. As a result, they pulled the plug on his deal, and cut his stay short. Unfortunately for de Vries, he couldn’t even stay until his home race in Zandvoort. However, as per Tsunoda, de Vries played a big role in mentoring him, even though his results didn’t show on paper.

Nyck De Vries experience helped Yuki Tsunoda a lot

Before stepping into Formula 1, De Vries proved his worth in other racing ventures. The 28-year-old won the Formula 2 championship back in 2019 and followed it up by winning the Formula E championship in 2021.

Therefore, according to Tsunoda, there was a lot to learn from De Vries. As reported by RaceFans, Tsunoda said, “He had plenty of experience in other categories. And gave the team good feedback based on his knowledge. He had the pace and, as a friend. I enjoyed my time with him.”

However, with De Vries being replaced by a much more experienced driver in Ricciardo, Tsunoda has to step up even more in the coming races this season.

Tsunoda’s new teammate brings new challenges for him

The departure of de Vries means that Daniel Ricciardo has finally found his opportunity to make a grand return to Formula 1. After putting in a scintillating performance at the Pirelli Tire Test in Silverstone, Ricciardo managed to impress the Red Bull bosses enough to get himself a spot at AlphaTauri.

Ricciardo has started over 230 races in Formula 1 and has managed to win eight races. Including seven with Red Bull. Tsunoda will have quite a lot to learn from the Honey Badger when they finally team up.

However, the AlphaTauri youngster also has to be aware that his performance will be compared with that of Ricciardo for the rest of the season. If he manages to continue his dominant performance and overshadow Ricciardo, it would help his chances of getting into the Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen.