Nyck de Vries says Dr. Helmut Marko ‘would appreciate’ it if can prove him wrong about picking him for the Scuderia AlphaTauri ride for the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.
The Dutchman was brought in to replace the BWT Alpine F1 Team bound Pierre Gasly for the current season but has had a difficult start to the year, de Vries remaining one of only two drivers yet to score a point alongside Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant.
Dr. Marko said Oracle Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner had reservations about bringing in de Vries, but Marko made the call to sign the Dutchman, a move he now feels could be wrong.
“Not often, but sometimes we do. The last one… I would say de Vries,” Marko was quoted as saying by PlanetF1.com about whether he and Horner were always in agreement over driver choices. “Basically it’s AlphaTauri, but we’re a big family and we get opinions.
“He [Horner] was not a fan of De Vries.”
Rumours around the paddock are saying de Vries’ time at AlphaTauri is close to ending, but the former FIA Formula 2 and ABB FIA Formula E World Championship champion says it is in his hands to prove his bosses wrong by performing on track to keep his drive.
“I think Dr. Marko would appreciate if I proved him wrong on track,” De Vries is quoted as saying by PlanetF1.com. “That’s all I kind of feel about it and is within my control. So that’s it.
“But, equally, there is no need to force anything. I think whenever you are trying harder or trying to force something that is not kind of ready then it won’t happen, and then mistakes will happen.
“So, I think the key is to just continue as we are and continue to focus on the job, remain patient, and then I think the potential is there so it’s just a matter of time for things to come together.”
De Vries says the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, where he finished only eighteenth after a clash with Kevin Magnussen, was another example of things not going his way, and with the battle between those just outside the top ten extremely close, any mistake or problem is punished.
“I think I personally didn’t do a good enough job,” de Vries said of his Canadian performance. “As a team, we also struggled a little bit. It just shows that the midfield is very close.
Basically, from P11 to P20, everything is so close that, when you don’t execute a good weekend, it immediately puts you on the back foot. It doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with direct car performance or development.
“It’s just a matter of not making the right calls throughout the weekend. It was obviously a challenging weekend with different circumstances, rain in qualifying, so it just showed how competitive it is and how tight it is.
“I’m sure that we will be back to where we were earlier, but we’ve got to make sure, as a team, that we stay on top of everything and, obviously, I’ve also got to do my job.”
