Nyck de Vries went into the Monaco Grand Prix with his Formula 1 career dangling by a thread, as one of only two drivers to have failed to secure points this season.
The Dutch driver’s performance had been in stark contrast to his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, with the Japanese racer securing the team’s only points so far this season.
It was reported ahead of Monaco that de Vries had been directly warned he could be sacked at the end of the season if he doesn’t swiftly improve.
The poor showing from de Vries early in the 2023 season was not helped by a series of crashes from the Dutchman that will have cost the team dearly at a time when they are near the bottom of the Constructors’ Standings.
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“This was by far his best weekend for AlphaTauri,” Dr Helmut Marko told Motorsport.com.
“Nyck was much closer to Yuki than before. This is what I want to see from him.
“Yuki was also really good until the brake problems came again. This is something that has to be solved by the team, they have brake problems so often.
“Of course we want to see more.
“We thought we’d bring in someone with some experience already to challenge Yuki. But that didn’t happen yet, so that is the most important thing.”
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Leaving Monaco, AlphaTauri finds itself in P9 of the Constructors’ race, only just ahead last-placed Williams, thanks to two P10 finishes.
In the Drivers’ Standings, Tsunoda is sat in P16, while de Vries is down in P19, a disappointing performance compared to the line-up at AlphaTauri’s sister team Red Bull.
Red Bull’s dominant duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have a commanding lead at the front of the grid, as the RB19 outclasses rival cars.