Nyck de Vries admits F1 drive is not going to plan: 'It just has to fall into place'

AlphaTauri's rookie Formula 1 driver, Nyck de Vries, says that he has not adapted to F1 as quickly as he would have liked and is now under pressure to catch up.

De Vries arrived at AlphaTauri amid much fanfare as a much-hyped driver, but his performances have left much to be desired this season.

At the Bahrain Grand Prix, hopes were high after he was in with a shot of getting points in his debut F1 race as a full-time driver, but he fell away to finish 14th, which remains his best showing this season after three races.

To make matters worse, his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, under plenty of pressure himself, has shown a lot more pace and has outqualified De Vries in every race so far.

Looking at the progress

"I do see good progress in the last two weekends," De Vries told the Dutch publication Formule 1.

"If you're a bit behind as we are now, sometimes it all just has to fall into place. And it's not always evident that it's going well.

"That's just inherent to F1 because of the large platform it is. Everyone watches, everyone likes it. But it's fine - it is everyone's right, and I respect it.

"You can't please everyone - you have fans and non-fans. But I believe that with time it will come our way, and the team and I are working very hard together on that.

"Pressure is always there in this world," said De Vries. "As a driver, in whatever category, you're always fighting to survive.

"The demand for places in motorsport is simply much greater than the supply, so there's always pressure. But it's really no different than in other years."