Nyck de Vries has been relieved of his driving duties by AlphaTauri after just 10 races with the Red Bull sister team, according to reports. The Dutchman only joined AlphaTauri at the end of last year following Pierre Gasly’s move to Alpine but is already said to have been given the boot by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko.
De Vries has struggled to impress over the course of this year despite turning plenty of heads with his point-scoring performance for Williams at Monza last year, when he stepped in for Alex Albon while the Thai driver was undergoing treatment for appendicitis. It has been a different story for the 28-year-old in recent months, though, and it already seems as though his time in the F1 paddock is over.
He has been ditched by AlphaTauri with immediate effect, according to Viapay commentator Allard Kalff, with Marko having lost patience after just 10 races on the team’s books. Meanwhile, it has been claimed by De Telegraaf that Daniel Ricciardo will be drafted in to replace De Vries from next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix until at least the end of the year.
The popular Aussie was dropped by McLaren one year ahead of schedule in December after struggling to impress alongside Lando Norris, although he was quickly snapped up by Red Bull as their test and reserve driver. He has been taking part in plenty of PR and simulator work for the team in recent months but already looks set for a return to the grid with AlphaTauri following the news of De Vries’ dismissal.
Ricciardo took part in a Pirelli tyre test on behalf of Red Bull on Tuesday in order to to evaluate the impact of potentially removing tyre blankets from F1 teams in future seasons. He is also set to drive for the team in another test at Monza later this year, although it remains to be seen if this plan will change in light of his impending move to AlphaTauri.
The decision to change drivers so quickly is another ruthless one from Marko, who has gained a reputation as a cold-hearted figure throughout his time as Red Bull’s chief advisor. He previously dropped Daniil Kvyat from the senior team after just six months to be replaced by Max Verstappen in 2016, while Pierre Gasly suffered the same fate three years later following his move up from Toro Rosso.
De Vries, meanwhile, will leave F1 without a single point to his name in 2023 and will be left to mull over what went wrong from afar over the coming months. He was previously warned by Marko that he could be sacked if his results did not improve, with the 80-year-old insisting back in May that he was not afraid to pull the trigger if De Vries’ position grew untenable.
“We spoke to De Vries and he agrees with us, he needs to improve,” Marko told F1 Insider. “The gap to teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who is doing a great job, is too big. To use footballer jargon, Nick has a yellow card but not the red one yet. If he improves, a driver change will not be an issue.”
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