AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda says his former team mate Nyck de Vries deserved more races before losing his race seat just ten rounds into his rookie season.
De Vries was replaced after the British Grand Prix by Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull’s third driver, after failing to score a single point over the first ten rounds of the championship.
Speaking ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Tsunoda told media including RaceFans that he believes his former team mate deserved more time in the car before losing his seat.
“I think so,” Tsunoda said. “I think just 10 races, especially at a couple of tracks that he didn’t know, I think so.
“At the same time, I know what Red Bull’s side is, what they’re saying. But I think he deserved at least until probably the summer break. I was thinking like that.”
Tsunoda said he had a good relationship with De Vries and that the pair had exchanged messages after news broke that he had lost his seat.
“I told him what I felt and also appreciation to him and he gave me a very nice message back,” he said. “So obviously we’re friends and I felt he was a really nice guy and a respectful person. I can respect a lot of things from him.”
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Tsunoda has scored AlphaTauri’s only points of the 2023 season so far. The team lies tenth and last in the standings on just two points. Asked if he felt the AlphaTauri was an especially difficult car to drive for a newcomer, Tsunoda said he believed the car his raced during his rookie season two years ago was more challenging.
“To be honest, compared to the 2021 car, this year’s car is, for me, probably less difficult to adapt to compared to a 2021 car,” he explained.
“The 2021 cars had much more downforce, which was a huge step compared to other categories. This year’s car fees like last year’s car – the 18-inch tyres and less grip in the low-speed, it’s slower in those corners. So I don’t feel like it’s super-hard to adapt, but it still is hard. Especially as each team has their own characteristics and probably the AlphaTauri’s not that easy as well.”
Asked if he believes the AlphaTauri is the slowest car on the grid, Tsunoda replied “yeah, I think so.”
“For me, my perspective, we’re not definitely like P8 or P9,” he continued. “It’s not ideal. But the good thing is we are having upgrades every race so far and we’re going to bring a couple of stuff to this race, so hopefully we can make a bit of a little step each race.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained the team’s decision not to keep de Vries until the summer break when he spoke to the official F1 website.
“I think the situation was clear,” he said. “It was a question of ‘okay, what’s the point in waiting?’ If we’ve got to do something, we may as well get on with it and give Daniel 12 races to see what he’s capable of.”
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