Nobody knows the brutal reality of life waiting on an F1 breakthrough as well as Nyck de Vries.
A Formula 2 champion in 2019, the Dutchman would have to wait until 2022 to line up on an F1 grid for the first team - as he filled in for the ill Alex Albon at Williams during the Italian GP at Monza. His stunning drive secured an ninth place finish and made the Mercedes junior hot property - and he eventually plumped to follow Max Verstappen's route by signing for Red Bull's second team, Alpha Tauri, for the 2023 campaign.
But the moved proved a disaster, with De Vries unable to score a point as he was axed by the team after just 10 races - and replaced by Daniel Ricciardo. Now opening up about the experience the 30-year-old, who competed GT racing and Formula E as he waited on his chance, revealed the brutal truth about life as a driver failing to deliver results on the biggest stage in motorsport.
He told the Cool Room podcast: "I guess I didn’t really come up to speed quickly enough. I think there were some situations where the coin could have easily landed in my favour, but it didn’t. Ultimately, my bosses didn’t think it was good enough for the time I was there, and they decided to replace me. It was a challenging time because there were a lot of talks publicly about it, and I wasn’t really aware of anything. At least there wasn’t really much of a dialogue with me, personally.
“You pick up everything through the media. During F1 weekends you speak a lot to the media, so basically every weekend since maybe my second weekend, I’d just arrived and I had to answer questions about my future, which felt a little bit out of place – but that’s how it went or can go. You obviously have the media, so you have external kind of
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