Was Marko tougher on De Vries than on Tsunoda in his first year?

On Tuesday, sad news came out for Dutch racing and above all for Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman has lost his seat in Formula 1 with immediate effect. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has forgiven his AlphaTauri seat to Daniel Ricciardo. Was Marko tougher on De Vries than on Yuki Tsunoda, who also had a turbulent first year?

The Austrian is implacable. If you don't perform at Red Bull or sister team AlphaTauri, you lose your seat. It has happened before to the likes of Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon, Daniil Kvyat, Scott Speed and now Nyck de Vries. Tsunoda also had to fear for his place in Formula 1 for a long time, but is now driving his third season in the premier class. Was Marko more patient with the Japanese than with De Vries?

Tsunoda's first ten races

The AlphaTauri driver had a turbulent first year in 2021. The youngster started his Formula 1 career convincingly by scoring points right away in Bahrain with a impressive ninth-place finish. De Vries came no further than fourteenth at his first Grand Prix, although it must be said that the Dutchman's AT04 was a significantly inferior car to his former teammate's AT02.

One race later, Tsunoda started from 20th in Imola after an unfortunate crash in qualifying. He worked his way back up to ninth place until a red flag and spin threw a spanner in the works. In Spain, Tsunoda had a poorer qualifying by placing 16th. After reaching Q3 in Baku and finishing in the wall in the same session, he achieved a handsome seventh place a day later, overshadowed by a third-place finish for teammate Pierre Gasly.

In France, Tsunoda had to start from the pit lane after yet another crash. He worked his way up to P13. In the three races that would follow, Tsunoda would finish tenth twice more and again reach Q3 in Austria. Teammate Gasly outperformed Tsunoda weekly, with a third place, sixth place, two seventh places, a ninth place, and two times a tenth place.

Difference with De Vries

The biggest difference with Nyck de Vries was that the Japanese regularly showed he could be very fast. Whereas with the Dutchman the question was whether he simply had the qualities to be fast enough, with Tsunoda his lack of experience and impetuosity was the thorny issue. Also, the then 20-year-old Tsunoda had his age with him. At 28 years old, De Vries was no longer a real rookie and had also gained a lot of experience in other racing classes.

Yuki Tsunoda simply showed more potential in his first ten races and gave Marko the idea that, if he became more experienced and calmer, he would have the talent to become a successful F1 driver. De Vries unfortunately never showed that enough to the Austrian, despite the fact that he seemed to get stronger and faster every race. De Vries did not show anything special in his 10 races at AlpaTauri, where the flamboyant Japanese managed to impress and stand out with an impressive baptism of fire and clever overtaking races, despite his obvious shortcomings.