F1 News: De Vries warned that he must be "competitive from the first race" in 2023
Nyck de Vries was one of many surprises in the 2022 driver market, emerging as a candidate to join AlphaTauri after his impressive cameo performance for Williams at Monza.
Red Bull's Helmut Marko has admitted that De Vries was not seriously considered before the Italian GP, but this does not mean the Dutchman will avoid the typical levels of scrutiny drivers face at the Italian squad.
Speaking to the media in Japan, Franz Tost explained how the 27-year-old will be assessed at AlphaTauri as a rookie:
"The guidance of the team depends also on the performance of the car. If we have a good car, it's easy for both drivers.
"If we have problems in the car, then I think that it will not be easy to sort out everything because Nyck hasn't so much Formula 1 experience.
"Yuki is still in a learning process - but I think that Yuki next year should be mature enough to give technical guidance.
"Nevertheless, I expect a lot from Nyck because he has experience from the racing categories where he won races and championships.
"Once more, if the car works, I think that we will have a successful year."
Franz Tost emphasised AlphaTauri's role in the success of Nyck de Vries, stressing that the Dutchman will need competitive machinery to showcase his skill.
De Vries has accumulated plenty of experience throughout his racing career, but his adaptation to Formula 1 will become more complicated if his machinery doesn't facilitate development.
This is not to say that AlphaTauri must produce a race-winning package next year, but Tost is aware that the unpredictable nature of the AT03 cannot persist next year.
Despite this, the AlphaTauri boss has made clear that De Vries will be expected to perform:
"I expect that this learning period for Nyck will be reduced to a couple of tests. That means I expect him to be very competitive from the first race onwards in 2023...
"All the Red Bull young drivers were taken into consideration. There's Liam Lawson, there's [Ayumu] Iwasa, there's Hauger...
"They need to do another year or two in their categories and then we will see what the future will bring."