The F1 driver already under threat after torrid start to F1 2023
De Vries’ starring drive to ninth-place on his F1 debℱut feels like a million 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 foജll💖owing corner.
It capped off a poor weekend for de Vries, who had pushed teammate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Yuki Tsunoda in the wall on the🌱 openin𒁃g lap of Saturday’s sprint.
While de Vries’ performance in the opening round of Bahrain can be excused, given AlphaTauri’s lack of outright pace, the Italian’s team recent upgrades have clearly worked, allowing Tsunoda to score points in the last two raceꦫs.
While that doesn’t tell the whole story given Tsunoda has been arguably F1’s surprise package - positively-sp𝐆eaking - 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 the session.
But his good work was soon u♋ndone by a shunt in qualifying.&n🔜bsp;
Put ꦺthat alongside an incident with Tsunoda, then a race-ending incident on Sunday, it was a poor weekend overall.
“[It was] fully my mꦏistake, my responsibility, silly and unnecessary and that is all I can say about it,” 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 w🗹ill have toꦰ look ahead to what's coming.
“It is kind of an awkward corner bꦗecause the wall comes towards you and I was just a bit too close. It is a mistake, fully on me, nobody else to blame and I made it.”
De Vries has not lived up to expectations with many tipping the 28-year-old to be the 🐭team’s leader given Tsunoda’s fiery n꧂ature and less experience.
Giv♏en the ruthlessness of the Red Bull driver programme, he’s fully aware that ✱he’ll have to turn it around quickly.
“There is positivity to take away from certain moments and I th🐠ink 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 added.
“That is very tough to swallow, hard, 💜but the only way to move forward is to continue to look ahead and just follow ﷺthe process.
“I personally believe things will turn around.”
De Vries wasn’t Red Bull’s first choice as 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Pierre Gasly’s replacement for F1 2023 - IndyCar star Colton Herta was.
The Dutchman was ultimately the default choice given the lack of alternatives available on the market, plus Re💧d 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.
♊However, 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 Brendon꧙ Hartley’s stint with Toro Rosso in 2018.
An incredibly talen𒅌ted sportscar driver, Hartley was drafted into Red Bull’s junior team as they had run out of options in a similar scenario 🉐to what had happened with de Vries.
Admittedly, de Vries d📖eserves time - we are only four races in thꦡe season after all - but his opening four races have been incredibly disappointing.
Liam Lawson’s impressive start to life in Japanese single-seaꦚter series Super Formula would have caught the eye of Helmut Marko.
Lawson finished third in last year’s F2 championship, one place ahead of Williams driver 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Logan Sargeant, who has p💃erformed above expectations so far along🐼side Alex Albon.
If de Vries continues to struggle, while Lawson excels, Helmut Marko will surely cons♛ider a change even as early as the summer breꩵak.
With a🀅 sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the🥂 heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
