The F1 driver already under threat after torrid start to F1 2023
De Vries’ starring drive to ninth-place on his F1 debut feels like a mil♍lion miles away on the back of a ♚shambolic race weekend in Baku.
He was the cause of the ༒early Safety Car following a clumsy clout of the wall at Turn 5 before ending up in the wall at the following corner.
It capped off a poor weekend for de Vries, who had pushed teammate 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Yuki Tsunoda in the wall o🍌n the opening lap of Saturday’s sprint.
While de Vries’ performance in the opening round of Bahrain can be excused, given AlphaTaur🐭i’s lack of outright pace, the Italian’s team recent upgrades have clearly worked, allowing Tsunoda to score points in𓆏 the last two races.
While that doesn’t tell the whole story given Tsunoda 🌼has been arguably F1’s surpr༺ise package - positively-speaking - this season - the AlphaTauri car is certainly not the slowest on the field.
De Vries did show a hint of pace in first practice in Baku, setting the sixth-fastest time of theꦜ session.
But h﷽is good work was soon undone by a shunt in qualifying.
Put that alongside an incident with Tsunoda, then a race🌄-ending incident on Sunday, it was a poor weekend overall.
“[It was] fully my mistake, my responsibility🐟, silly and unnecessary and that is all I can say about it,ও” de Vries said of his crash in Sunday’s race.
“All I can do now is move on and look at the next... thankfully there is another race next weekend🦩 and we will have to look a✅head to what's coming.
“It is kind of an awkward corner because the wall comes towards you and I was just a bit too close. 🐼It is a mistake, fullyꦛ on me, nobody else to blame and I made it.”
De Vries h🦂as n🔜ot lived up to expectations with many tipping the 28-year-old to be the team’s leader given Tsunoda’s fiery nature and less experience.
Given the ruthlessness of the Red Bull driver progra🍰mme, he’s fully aware that he’ll have to turn it around quickly.
“There is positivity𓆏 to take away from certain moments and I think we have shown, since Jeddah, speed at given moments but for a lot of reasons and circumstances, we haven't really been able to turn it into a concrete result,” he adde🗹d.
“That is very tough to swallow, hard, but 🎃the only way to move forward is to continue to look ahead and just follow the process.
“I personally believe things will turn around.”
De Vries wasn’t Red Bull’s first choice as 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Pierre Gasly’s replacement for F1 2023 - IndyCar star Colton Herta was.
The Dutchman was ultimately the default choice given the lack of alternatives availableꦇ on the market, plus Red Bull’s plethora of junior 🍒talent haven’t quite lived up to expectations in Formula 2.
No doubt de Vries was impressive in his one-off drive for Williams, combined with his respectable CV of winning the F2 and 💛Formula E titles - he has pedigree and at some point, deserved an opportunity in F1.
Howev꧟er, de Vries isn’t one of Red Bull’s own nor is he a young prospect that has a significant scope in the future to improve to a point he could race for the senior team.
It’s reminiscent of Brendon Hartley’s stint with Toro Rꦡosso in 2018.
An incredibly talented sportscar driver, Hartley was drafted into Red B🅰ull’s junior team as they had run out of options in a similar scenario to what had happened with de 🦄Vries.
Admittedly, de Vries deserves time - we are only four races in th🌼e ꦯseason after all - but his opening four races have been incredibly disappointing.
Liam Lawson’s impressive start to life in Japanese single-seater series Super Formula would have c🔯aught the eye of Helmut Marko.
Lawson finished third in last year’s F2 championship, one place ahead of Williams driver 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Logan Sargeant, who has performed above expectations so far alongs♑ide Alex Albon.
If de Vries continues to struggle, while Lawson excels, Helmut Marko will 🅰surely consider a change even as early a🔴s the summer break.
With a sharp eye for F1’s contr🃏oversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our un🌱biased reporting.
