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-time F1 driverꦕ, most recently finishing 17th at Silverstone, ahead of only drivers who di🍌d not finish.
He has now become 🍌the latest Red Bull-affiliated driver to be brutally replaced, with Marko admitti⛄ng he likely won’t ever get a second chance in F1.
“We contracted Nyck because he performed well at Monza last year,” Red Bull consultant Marko told about D𒈔e Vrꦫies’ 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.ඣ
“He was always𒆙 three-tenths of a ꦿsecond slower. We didn’t see any improvements.
“He’s 28, has a lot of experience, an𓄧ꦿd has also been able to gain a lot of knowledge as a test driver 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 ☂was coming under in🎃creasing pressure.
Marko insisted: “We had to do something.
“Why should we wait? What do ♛two more races matter if you don’t see any improvement?
“Nyck is a ve🍨ry nice guy but the speed wasn’t there.”
Marko said another F1 opportunity will be “di꧅fficult” for De Vries and recommended he seeks a career in endurance racing.
Ricciardo, who impressed in a t꧂yre test driving a Red Bull, is AlphaTauri’s repl📖acement for the rest of this year.
“His 💝lap times were competit💖ive on three different tyre sets,” Marko said.
“🐻If Ric꧃ciardo didn’t have the speed we would have had to consider something else.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from🌳 American sports, to football, to F1.
