Christian Horner has defined the place he believes it went flawed for outgoing AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries – because the Crimson Bull Workforce Principal additionally revealed when the Dutch racer was instructed he was being changed by Daniel Ricciardo.
De Vries, who had beforehand served because the reserve driver for Mercedes for 3 seasons, joined AlphaTauri in the beginning of the yr. This got here after he impressed in his shock substitute look with Williams eventually yr’s Italian GP – ending ninth.
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Nevertheless, he struggled to match the efficiency of his staff mate, Yuki Tsunoda, for a lot of the season, failing to attain a degree at any of the opening 10 races thus far this yr. And talking on the F1 Nation podcast, Horner gave his view on the scenario.
“It was turning into clearly a tough scenario for Nyck de Vries,” Horner defined. “However there was a excessive expectation on him as a result of, while inexperienced in System 1, he is clearly a really skilled driver.
“I believe there was a basic feeling that Nyck wasn’t fairly hitting the mark. After which the query was, you understand, what are the choices if we have been to modify issues round?
“And from a Crimson Bull Racing perspective, essentially the most attention-grabbing choice for me was to see how Daniel performs. In order that was the choice that was made. All of it occurred fairly fast and right here he’s for the Hungarian Grand Prix.”
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When requested when De Vries was knowledgeable of Crimson Bull and AlphaTauri’s choice to maneuver on from him, Horner replied: “All of it occurred somewhat faster than anticipated, allowing for that we hadn’t accomplished the take a look at.
“Helmut spoke with Nyck and, you understand, he was the one which clearly had recruited him. He was the one which spoke with Nyck about lap 11 of the take a look at, I believe.”
De Vries had been one in all two Dutch drivers on the grid this season – together with Crimson Bull driver Max Verstappen – and Horner revealed whether or not they have been ever tempted to let him participate in his dwelling race at Zandvoort in August, earlier than changing him.
“I believe it’s very tough. That may have meant clearly leaving him within the automobile till after the summer time break,” mentioned Horner. “I believe the scenario was clear. It was a query of, okay, what is the level in ready?
“If we have to do one thing, we’d as nicely get on with it and provides Daniel 12 races to see what he is able to.”
