De Vries critical of himself: 'I didn't do well enough'

In its first weeks, the AlphaTauri has, by no means, proved to be a success story. Team boss Franz Tost was already speaking harsh words about his engineers, whom he - in his own words - 'no longer trusted'. Indeed, Tost had been led to believe that AlphaTauri would have a competitive car on the grid this season, but the opposite appears to be true.

Step up

In Saudi Arabia, Yuki Tsunoda finished in 11th position, while Nyck de Vries saw the finishing flag in 14th. Earlier, the Dutchman indicated that he had not attacked enough, as he found it difficult to find the right balance between tyre management and powering up. In a press release from his team, De Vries goes even further: "I didn’t do a good enough job today", says De Vries. Still, he continues, "Generally, it was a step up from Bahrain, so that’s a positive."

Technical director Jody Egginton also puts his own shoulder to the wheel. "We weren’t able to move Nyck into the points with the strategy", Egginton said. "He made some progress from his starting position, had some good battles, and was putting in solid lap times on both compounds tonight. It’s frustrating to miss out on a point, but there were positives to take from the drivers and team’s performance tonight.