2019 F2 champion Nyck de Vries recently faced the harsh reality of F1 after AlphaTauri brutally sacked him in midseason. The Dutchman has had a rough 2023 season so far as alongside Williams’ Logan Sargeant, he is the only driver that has failed to score a point so far. Despite having such a poor campaign, the 28-year-old once stated that he is arguably as good of a driver as McLaren’s Lando Norris and Williams’ Alex Albon.
De Vries made these remarks following the 2018 season when he finished fourth in the F2 championship, behind George Russell, Norris and Albon. Since all three drivers secured F1 seats the season after, De Vries seemed taken aback. The Dutchman failed to understand why he did not get an F1 seat the next season despite performing at a similar level to the trio.
thank you silverstone ❤️ pic.twitter.com/fZro7lN0x3
— Lando Norris (@LandoNorris) July 9, 2023
With F1 teams looking past him, the 28-year-old used this snub as a motivation to help him win the F2 championship the year after. De Vries has been unhappy to see the likes of Russell, Norris and Albon progress in their careers despite him having matched them in the previous Formula 2 categories.
Nyck de Vries is furious to see Lando Norris’s F1 progress
McLaren’s Lando Norris seems to be in the form of his life as he clinched an outstanding second-place finish at the British Grand Prix a week ago. The Briton finished just behind race-winner Max Verstappen in his home race.
And in stark contrast, Nyck de Vries now finds himself without an F1 seat despite not even having finished a season in the sport. Considering that the Dutchman’s progress has anyways been slower than his main rivals, he is likely to be far from happy, having revealed his frustrations about the same previously.
In a conversation with Dutch newspaper Friesch Dagblad back in 2018, the 28-year-old said (as quoted by formula1news.co.uk), “I do not want to be arrogant at all, but Norris and Albon were in my eyes really no better than me. Norris won only one race. Albon won four and I won three“.
After failing to secure an F1 seat in 2019, De Vries then went on to win the F2 season the same year and also began competing in other forms of motorsports. In the 2020-21 season, he won the Formula E championship with the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team, following which he also got to compete in one F1 race with Williams.
Despite having such remarkable success in different forms of motorsports, it seems surprising to see how poorly he performed at AlphaTauri. Now with Daniel Ricciardo replacing him, all eyes will be on the Australian to see how he performs for the rest of the 2023 season.
Daniel Ricciardo faces tough test ahead with AlphaTauri return
Daniel Ricciardo will know all about how ruthless F1 is, having faced the sack with McLaren last year. With the Australian underperforming massively in comparison to Lando Norris, the British outfit had no choice but to part ways with him.
Race week. Haven’t said that in a while. Cool.
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) July 17, 2023
Since Ricciardo has already gone through the same, he will know more than anybody else that he cannot take anything for granted on his F1 return with AlphaTauri. The 34-year-old has been provided a lifeline and now he will need to hit the ground running as soon as possible.
The senior Red Bull team have already assigned Ricciardo his first task and that is to match Yuki Tsunoda at AlphaTauri. If the former McLaren driver is able to deliver results consistently, he very well could move to a top side in the next season, and try and achieve his dream of winning a world title.
