F1 News: Motorsport Legend Calls Out Red Bull On Nyck De Vries Firing

Tim Coronel has called out Red Bull after they fired Nyck de Vries yesterday to replace him with Daniel Ricciardo.

Tom Coronel, the acclaimed Dutch racing driver, is of the opinion that Red Bull might have acted prematurely in terminating their contract with Nyck de Vries, who was showing signs of significant improvement as he continued his 2023 campaign with AlphaTauri. 

Coronel’s critique comes on the heels of an announcement from Red Bull that emerged during the Silverstone tyre test with Daniel Ricciardo, revealing that the Australian would replace de Vries at the Italian team. As the news was confirmed, it was clear that Ricciardo would take his place starting from the next race in Hungary for the rest of the F1 2023 season, leaving de Vries in the lurch with no place in Formula 1.

Known for his forthright opinions, Coronel didn’t hold back when criticising Red Bull’s decision concerning de Vries. De Vries, who entered the sport at the beginning of this year, was riding a wave of optimism, fuelled by his impressive performance as a substitute for Alex Albon at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix. The former Formula E and GP2 champion had shown great promise, but his fortunes dwindled swiftly.

De Vries' struggle to match Yuki Tsunoda, his team-mate's performance, coupled with several rookie errors, eventually led Red Bull to consider a change within their junior team.

Contrary to Red Bull's stance, Coronel contends that De Vries had started to show potential, especially with his notable performance in the sluggish AT04 at Silverstone. He felt that De Vries was closing the gap with Tsunoda, who was already in his third F1 season, hence Coronel's bafflement at Red Bull's decision.

In a candid social media post, Coronel reflected:

“Racing is cruel and so are the decisions,” Coronel wrote.. 

“In my opinion, it’s way too early to make a decision about a driver when you’re not even halfway [through] the season.

“He had a good race in Silverstone and made progress throughout the season, even with the slowest car on track. He’s not far behind from a team-mate who’s having his 3rd year with the team.

“Nyck has won every single race class he participated in: from karting, Formula 2, Formula E, superb performance in several endurance race cars and so on.

“I’m 100 per cent sure a lot a F1 drivers don’t have a racing career like Nyck had already."

Continuing to send a message to de Vries specifically:

"There’s a lot more than Formula 1, but you deserved to have a full season to show your progress.

“It’s totally understandable you don’t want to do anything with racing at the moment, but I can’t wait to see you back on track buddy.”

Regrettably, just like Williams' new American driver Logan Sargeant, de Vries was yet to score any points. But with a car as slow as the AlphaTauri, that comes as no surprise.