AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost admits Nyck de Vries was not ready to race in F1

Franz Tost revealed the lack of preparedness is what caused Nyck de Vries to fail in his F1 stint with AlphaTauri.

AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost admits Nyck de Vries was not ready to race in F1

Franz Tost (image via PlanetF1), Nyck de Vries (image via The Sportrush)

Nyck de Vries finally got a full-time seat in Formula 1 for 2023 with AlphaTauri. The 28-year-old had impressed the entire grid with a stellar stand-in performance at the Italian GP for Williams in place of Alex Albon. However, the Dutch driver could not deliver satisfactory results this season and was replaced by a returning Daniel Ricciardo. AlphaTauri Team Principal Franz Tost acknowledged de Vries’ lack of preparedness or F1.

Tost mentioned that the sport has transformed drastically recently, with debutants having to be professionally prepared to race on the grid. The 67-year-old explained that despite clocking in over 5000kms in private tests, Nyck de Vries still wasn’t completely ready to race. This put the Dutch driver on the backfoot right from the start of the season.

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He told Racingnews360, “Before he comes to F1, yes [he has] the two private tests where he achieves around 5,000km or whatever. We did some pilot tests with Nyck at the beginning of the season. But not as much as maybe would have been necessary.” This weakness was amplified at tracks where de Vries had never raced before, such as the Saudi Arabian GP or the Australian GP at Albert Park.

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Franz Tost reveals the reason for replacing Nyck de Vries

Nyck de Vries, Azerbaijan GP image via Autosport
Nyck de Vries, Azerbaijan GP image via Autosport

De Vries struggled to perform on tracks where he had no prior experience. Moreover, the F1 Sprint weekends, like the Azerbaijan GP, were even more difficult for the former F2 champion. As the Dutchman had only one practice session. Subsequently, Tost mentioned that the Red Bull sister team preferred Daniel Ricciardo’s experience for the tracks in the second half of the season.

The 67-year-old made it clear that de Vries is a great driver. The call to replace the Dutchman was made for the progress of AlphaTauri as the Faenza-based team tries to bounce back this season. Franz Tost concluded, “Nyck wouldn’t have known many race tracks and this is also a very, very big disadvantage. Daniel Ricciardo knows them and therefore at the end, we decided to go with Ricciardo.”

Thus, Franz Tost has admitted that Nyck de Vries was not prepared to race in Formula 1. The Dutch driver might have achieved success in F2 and even Formula E. However, F1 is a different landscape that needs drivers to be on the pace from the get-go. As such, de Vries was simply not ready to race at the pinnacle of motorsport with a car riddled with issues.

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