Nyck de Vries, who was unceremoniously fired from AlphaTauri last month, has now come under blast from former F1 driver Philippe Alliott.
Alliott said that he had never been impressed with a “single lap” from the 28-year-old Dutchman, who was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo.
Ricciardo has already recorded more respectable performances than de Vries, finishing in 13th at the Hungarian GP – his inaugural race of the season.
De Vries was dumped after only 10 races into the 2023 F1 season.
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Red Bull team adviser, Helmut Marko, defended what some labelled a ‘premature’ sacking, at the time.
The Austrian said: “Why wait? We signed Nick because he did a great job at Monza last year.
“We expected that this year he would at least perform at the level of Yuki Tsunoda, but this did not happen.
“In fact, he was constantly three-tenths slower and we didn’t see any progress.”
Alliott was vocally critical of De Vries during the ten races he did get with the AlphaTauri team.
Speaking to French media sources, he said: “You have to quickly make a strong impression.
“How a rookie comes into F1 says a lot about his personality. After that, it’s obvious that you compare a rookie with his teammate.
“He doesn’t necessarily have to beat him from the start, but at least be comparable on a flying lap. And at no time was I impressed by a lap from the Dutch driver.”
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Alliott seems to share Marko’s conviction that De Vries was not a rookie in need of more time.
The Frenchman said: “To survive in F1, you have to tick that box before claiming more time to show what you can do in the race.
“Otherwise, it’s just a waste of time – especially in a discipline as demanding as Formula 1, where the sporting and financial stakes are enormous.”