Dr. Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s Consultant, refuted reports that Nyck de Vries was given a deadline to prove his worth for AlphaTauri.
Nyck de Vries was drafted to replace Pierre Gasly at AlphaTauri after his impressive Formula 1 debut with Williams at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, when he stood in for the ill Alex Albon, scoring point for the Grove squad.
But the Dutchman has struggled so far in 2023, and has not delivered the sort of performance AlphaTauri have expected of him, when the paired him with incumbent Yuki Tsunoda, who so far has had the upper hand in the intra-team battle, while De Vries has been error prone.
Lately, reports have emerged that the powers that be at Red Bull and AlphaTauri, namely Helmut Marko, has given De Vries an ultimatum to up his game before being replaced by Daniel Ricciardo or Red Bull junior Liam Lawson. As for the deadline given to the AlphaTauri rookie, some reports mentioned the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix, others the Canadian Grand Prix.
During the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix, De Vries finished 12th, ahead of Tsunoda in 15th, keeping in mind the Japanese driver suffered from brake problems towards he end of the race while running in the points.
Monaco the best weekend for AlphaTauri and De Vries
Marko was satisfied with the performance of AlphaTauri and their drivers in Monaco, he told Motorsport.com: “This was by far his best weekend for AlphaTauri. Nyck was much closer to Yuki than before. This is what I want to see from him.
“Yuki was also really good until the brake problems came again. This is something that has to be solved by the team, they have brake problems so often,” he added.
However, the Austrian insisted De Vries is not off the hook yet; he said: “Of course we want to see more. We thought we’d bring in someone with some experience already to challenge Yuki. But that didn’t happen yet, so that is the most important thing.
As for the reported deadline set for the AlphaTauri driver; Marko revealed: “There is never a deadline.
“We just watch it and look at the performances. When we have to act, then we will act. At the moment we don’t do anything,” he concluded.