Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel recently shared his thoughts on the brutal sacking of Nyck de Vries by AlphaTauri. Vettel is afraid that De Vries may lose his confidence after AlphaTauri replaced him midseason with Daniel Ricciardo, just 10 races into his F1 career.
The Italian team made the shocking decision to replace the 28-year-old Dutchman after Ricciardo put in some blistering lap times during his test in Silverstone. After watching the Aussie drive, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner immediately gave chief Helmut Marko the nod to make Ricciardo’s signing official.
Marko then barely wasted any time in making the swap between Ricciardo and De Vries. With the 34-year-old now back in F1, the pressure lies on him to deliver from the very get-go with AlphaTauri. That is if he wants to return to the top and fight for a Red Bull return in 2024. As for De Vries, he may consider taking some time off to reset himself before he can try to find his way back into F1 once again, with a different team.
Sebastian Vettel sympathizes with Nyck de Vries after “harsh” sacking
While speaking in an interview with ITV, Sebastian Vettel explained how he sympathizes with Nyck de Vries and hopes that this sacking does not result in a “dent” to his career. The German began by saying that while he was very happy with Daniel Ricciardo getting the seat at AlphaTauri, he believes it was a “shame” to see how De Vries’ time came to an end.
After stating the same, Vettel added, “I hope that this sort of dent doesn’t give a dent to his career. People tend to do that, and that’s not right“. The former Red Bull driver then concluded his remarks by stating that De Vries is still a very good driver and that the Dutchman’s track record proves the same. De Vries is a winner of the 2019 F2 championship, and also showed his talent in other racing ventures, most notably the Formula E Championship.
Thank you for speaking about Nyck Seb 💙 pic.twitter.com/iOzKYku0N5
— Lan (@gaslycentral) July 15, 2023
Despite achieving glory at the international stage, he ended up having a disastrous start to life in F1.De Vries was one of the only two drivers alongside Logan Sargeant who failed to score a point in the 2023 season so far. With Ricciardo now having replaced De Vries, the spotlight will now be on him to see how he performs in a team that has been struggling at the back of the grid this campaign.
Daniel Ricciardo believes his McLaren problems are behind him
Soon after AlphaTauri announced Daniel Ricciardo as their driver for the remainder of the season, the Perth-born star gave an interview to Lawrence Barretto. While speaking to him, Ricciardo explained that while the AlphaTauri may not be the most comfortable car on the grid, he is confident about maximizing its potential and get results.
getting the Italian accent going 🇮🇹 😉@danielricciardo 👍🏼 pic.twitter.com/K2EmhTkwR7
— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) July 14, 2023
Ricciardo will get the opportunity to showcase his talent once again in just a week’s time when he suits up for the 2023 Hungarian GP. He will hope to use the remainder of the 2023 season to resurrect his F1 career and hope that he can move to a top team before the start of the next season.
