De Vries sent off by Marko: 'Find it a hard choice'

The news may have been a bit in the making. In recent days, more and more rumours have seeped through that Daniel Ricciardo would be awarded De Vries' seat in a solid Pirelli tyre test at the Silverstone circuit. It had long been assumed that De Vries would be given until the summer break to improve, but the GPs in Hungary and Belgium will thus already be out of his sight.

A hard sell, says Van der Garde. "It is of course hard news for everyone in the Netherlands and I think the hardest for Nyck de Vries, because quite honestly, of course you never want to be thrown out in the middle of the season. Yes, that is of course the story now," the Viaplay analyst said in an exclusive interview with GPblog.

Quick exit De Vries

Ten races were enough for Helmut Marko and AlphaTauri to see that De Vries was not delivering enough. What we often hear in Formula 1: only after five races is a driver completely used to his new team. Van der Garde is therefore somewhat surprised that the former Formula 2 and Formula E champion has already been parted with.

"Very honestly, getting ten races' time is of course almost nothing. I have to say: I find it quite intense, because he didn't really get to show his thing. Even though it did just improve a bit in the last few races, you still get put out and they choose Ricciardo's experience anyway," he said. The form seemed to be coming more and more to De Vries. "The last few races you could already see he was just making some progress. Of course it was still a bit less than Tsunoda, but I felt he was getting stronger and stronger."

Heavy blow

For years, the Dutchman dreamed of a career in Formula 1, but after a few months, that dream is already over. A big blow. "It is the hardest thing for him, that will be a thing mentally, he has to go through that. On the other hand, of course he is still young and I think he is definitely going to have a nice career in another branch of motorsport. For years, of course, he did endurance racing and there he really showed that he is just one of the fastest drivers. So I do expect him to have a nice career again, only that Formula 1 is now the end for him," Van der Garde states.

So where did De Vries leave it at AlphaTauri? "I can't quite judge how Marko and Red Bull are in it. That will probably be kept internal. The only criticism you can give is that it wasn't spectacular. There wasn't really an outlier of: do you remember that or this? Or wow, he was super in qualifying, or something in the rain, something in the semi-dry, a slightly drying track. It was all neatly within the lines and in that it did all get better, better and better step by step, but they probably didn't think it was good enough and that's why they made this choice."

The former Formula One driver sympathises with De Vries, who was taken over from Mercedes last September. "I think it's a hard choice, I think it's especially sad for Nyck. All I can say, I sympathise with him, I know this situation is very hard and very difficult. He's bound to take a hit from this mentally and hopefully he'll recover soon.

Ricciardo back from injury

Daniel Ricciardo will account for the remaining 12 Grands Prix. Like De Vries, the Australian will face Yuki Tsunoda. Possibly that will be a direct duel over who gets to take over the seat of the so far disappointing Sergio Perez in 2024. It is possible De Vries has been sent away to be able to see more of Ricciardo ahead of that important choice for next season.

"If you start thinking about that logically, you think it has something to do with that. That they want to see how Ricciardo does against Tsunoda, how he picks it up, whether he can regain confidence in himself anyway and how he will race. That will just happen, that if he does well, that he will be in another Red Bull," said Van der Garde, who, however, speaks of several possible scenarios. What is beyond doubt:"It just sucks for the Netherlands and especially for Nyck de Vries."