The F1 driver already under threat after torrid start to F1 2023
De Vries’ starring drive to ninth-place on his F1 debut f📖eels 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 following 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 opening lap of ﷺSaturday’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, allowi🌠ng Tsunoda to score𒁃 points in the last two races.
While that doesn’t tell the whole story given Tsunoda has been arguably F1’s surprise 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 the session.
But his good work was soon undone by a shunt i♛n qualifying.
Put that alongside an incide🦩nt with Tsunoda, then a race-ending incident on Sunday, it was a poor weekend over♚all.
“[It was] fully my mistake, my responsibility, silly and unnecessary and that is all I can say about it,” de V🗹ries 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 ahead 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, fully on me, nobody else to bl🅘ame and I made it.”
De Vries has not lived up to expectations with many tipping the 28-year-old toꦓ be the team’s leader given Tsunoda’s fiery nature and less experience.
Given the ruth🌠lessness of the Red Bull driver programme, h✤e’s fully aware that he’ll have to turn it around quickly.
“The♔re is positiv🧔ity 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 added.
“That is very tough to swallow, hard, but the only way to move forward is to continue to look ahead and just ꦬfollow the 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 t💧he default choice given the lack of alternatives available on the market, plus Red Bull’s plethora of junior talent haven’t quite lived up to expectations in 𝓀Formula 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 h🎉as ♚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 prospe⛄ct 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 To♛ro Rosso in 2018.
An in൲credibly talented 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 deserves time - we are only four races in the season after all - but his opening four r𓂃aces have been incredibly disappointing.
Liam La𓃲wson’s impressive start t🤪o life in Japanese single-seater 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, wh✃o has performed ab🍎ove expectations so far alongside Alex Albon.
If de Vri꧂es continues to struggle, while Lawson excels, Helmut Marko will surely consider a change even as early🍰 as the summer break.
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat🎃 of our unbiased reporting.
