De Vries gets understanding: 'That's tough for a young driver'

The pressure is mounting on Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman is still pointless, and after a negative comment on behalf of Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, it seems the AlphaTauri driver really needs to perform. And that is also what former world champion Emerson Fittipaldi sees.

De Vries' debut season is not going the way many people expected. Last year, the Dutchman scored points at Monza after Alexander Albon allowed him to get into the Williams due to appendicitis. This season, however, things are not yet working out for the 28-year-old driver: teammate Yuki Tsunoda has been faster all season, and the Dutchman has been involved in several crashes.

Fittipaldi sees that the AlphaTauri driver is struggling, he told wettfreunde.net: "He must be under enormous pressure because he wants to prove that he has the right to be there. And when you're under pressure and you don't have experience, that's a big problem. You start 'overdriving' or you tie yourself down and don't take risks, which leads to a low-performance threshold. You play it too safe and you're afraid to make mistakes because you think if you make another mistake you'll get fired. Sometimes that is difficult for a young driver."