Helmut Marko’s brutal verdict on why Nyck de Vries was axed
De Vries did not score a single point in his 10 grands prix as a full-ti💛me F1 driver, most recently finishing 17th at Silverstone, ahead of only drivers who did not finish.
H𒁏e has now become the latest Red Bull-affiliated driver to be brutally replaced, with Marko admitting he likely won’t ever get ဣa second chance in F1.
“We contracted Nyck because he ൩performed well at Monza last year,” Red Bull consultant Marko told about De Vries’ hugely impressive drive for Williams.
“We expected💫 him to at least be equal to his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda this year but that was not the case.
“He was always three-tenths of a secon🅷d sloweꦆr. We didn’t see any improvements.
“He’s 28, has a lot of experience, and has also been able to gain a lot of knowledge as a test d♓river in various F1♌ cars.
“You can’t compare him to a young rookie.
“In Baku, he started💜 the weekend well but then he crashed again.”
Clearly De Vries w🌳as coming under increasing pressu🌞re.
Marko insisted: “We had to do something.
“Why should we wait? What do two more races matter if you don’t see any improvemen☂t?
“Nyck is a very niꦍce guy but the speed wasn’t t🍌here.”
🥀Marko said another F1 opportunity will be “difficult” for De Vries and recommended he seeks a career in endurance r🅷acing.
Ricciardo, who impressed in a tyre test driving a Red Bull, is AlphaTauri’s ꩲreplacement for the rest of this year.
“His lap times were competitiv🥂e on three different tyre sets,” Marko said.
“If Ricciardo didn’t have the spee🌠d we would have had to consider something else.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from America🌌n sports, to football, to F1.
