F1 Rumour: Racing Insider - Nyck de Vries Could Be Out Of AlphaTauri Seat
According to Nyck de Vries' former racing rival, his seat with AlphaTauri could be in trouble with the Dutch driver's terrible start to his rookie season.
De Vries has been struggling to find performance in the AlphaTauri, has also been making some driving errors, and is yet to put a point on the board.
At the beginning of the 2023 season, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko was direct with his messages to the Italian team with high expectations for them to achieve fifth in the constructors' standings. After four races, AlphaTauri is currently sitting in ninth place, just one point ahead of Williams and four points behind Alfa Romeo.
De Vries' former racing rival, Egor Orudzhev, has explained in a recent interview that he foresees the rookie losing his seat on the team if he cannot find dramatic improvements. He said to Russian media outlet, Championat:
"If it goes on like this, then I think Helmut Marko will fire him.
"Honestly, I expected that the results would be better and Nyck would be closer to (Yuki) Tsunoda.
"But so far it’s been a complete failure."
The Dutch driver was signed on with a one year contract so will need to show some significantly improved performance before the 'silly season' starts in order to secure a permanent seat for next year.
De Vries showed great promise during his F1 debut last year when he had to step in last minute for Williams' Alex Albon for the Italian Grand Prix. He went on to score points on his first F1 race, leading many to believe he was the rookie to watch this year.
The AlphaTauri driver will be hoping to turn things around for the upcoming race in Miami which kicks off on Friday 5th May with free practice one and two.