Yellow Card Warning: Nyck de Vries on thin ice at AlphaTauri F1 team
May 15 - Nyck de Vries has been shown a "yellow card" and needs to improve, but the Dutchman will not yet be ousted.
That is the word from Dr Helmut Marko, the architect of Red Bull's highly successful F1 driver program, following rumours a decision has already been taken to axe the 28-year-old rookie from AlphaTauri.
"Nothing will happen in the next three races," Marko, 81, told Sport1.
"But we have spoken to de Vries and he agrees with us - he needs to improve. The gap to his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who is doing a great job, is too big.
"To use football jargon, Nyck got the yellow card but not the red card yet. If he improves, a driver change will not be an issue," Marko added.
But even if de Vries is ousted from the Red Bull-owned junior team, his replacement will not be 2023 Red Bull reserve Daniel Ricciardo.
"If worst comes to worst, we would fall back on our pool of young talent," said Marko. "Specifically, Liam Lawson and Ayumu Iwasa.
"Ricciardo is not an issue," he added.
New Zealander Lawson, 21, is currently in the Japanese open wheeler series Super Formula, while the similarly-aged Japanese Iwasa is third overall in this year's Formula 2 championship.
Marko said Mick Schumacher is not being considered.
"He's a Mercedes driver and he's not in our plans," he insisted. "Toto Wolff is responsible for him."
According to Sport1, however, Schumacher could have a chance later this year at Williams, which is now headed by Wolff's former deputy James Vowles.
Correspondent Ralf Bach wrote: "The Mercedes engine customer does not seem to be happy with the performance of the newcomer Logan Sargeant."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
In any case, De Vries would more realistically get sacked after the season rather than during, & yes, Liam Lawson or Ayumi Iwasa.
I wouldn't rule out Dennis Hauger yet, because of his closeness to Iwasa in the F2 driver standings.
De Vries has been a clear-cut underperformer & thus under threat if he continues at the current rate.
The same is inapplicable to Sargeant, though, not to mention no clear-cut indication has come out that Williams would be unhappy about his performance, so seemingly fake news.
Yes, he made costly errors in the Australian & Miami GPs.
However, most importantly, he quickly proved an improvement from Latifi & has, on average, been closer to Albon, etc., so overall, he's done decently okay.
Therefore, any sacking rumors at this point seem unfounded.
Williams promoted him to F1 with a longer-term view, so I doubt they'd easily sack him unless he truly underperformed, which hasn't happened.
I looked up Ayumi Iwasa on the internet to check his past experience, and guess what ~ Ayumi Iwasa is a porn star from Japan! LOL! Jere, what have you been watching?
However, make a small change of name from Ayumi to Ayumu, and we find the motor racing driver!
I believe Liam Lawson has a better pedigree, and he also has a Super Licence. Not sure about Iwasa.
I won't be surprised if De Vries is absent from the grid following the summer break, unless he starts to really perfom well.
I thought I typed the last letter correctly, but apparently, I had somehow accidentally pressed 'I' button without noticing before posting.
No reason for criticism because of a harmless typing error that can happen to anyone because no one is perfect in the end & besides, I usually notice possible mistyping before I press post.
Nevertheless, yes, Lawson has a better chance, albeit if Iwasa wins the F2 championship without Lawson winning the SF championship, the latter would probably be in a better position for an F1 promotion.
I wouldn't really be surprised either if De Vries gets sacked during the summer break at the current rate.
It wasn't intended as any form of criticism, it was just sharing how a minor typo can have such a major impact on a message! I saw the funny side of it. Who would have thought!
BTW, I didn't go to that other page.
I also saw the funny side, but wanted to point out just in case because I was unsure.
I did, but only to satisfy myself..., Er, I mean to find out whether it was true or not lol
It's quite strange De Vries is doing such a bad job in F1. The guy has won almost every championship he competed in.
I still believe he will up his game and get his focus back. He just has to adapt to the very different surroundings and the spotlight he is in.
I hope Marko will give him some slack. Yuki also needed a long time to adapt and crashed several times in his first season.
NP, Yuki brought huge piles of $$$ AND he's Japanese. Doc give a driver some slack??? C'mon, you know better than that.
When DR jumped from Renault to Mcl , all everyone talked about was the money , no one predicted he'd be fired and couldn't drive the Mcl,So while Nick was successful pre f1, in a lot of ways that doesn't count , you either can Or.... stoffel was the same , I hope he does up his game but history tells us , it rarely happens Imo