Nyck De Vries experienced a disastrous weekend in Azerbaijan, as he suffered two crashes in as many days, leaving him without a chance of securing points.
The Dutch driver has had the toughest start to the Formula 1 season out of all three rookies on the grid, leaving him in 20th place in the Drivers’ Standings on zero points.
The AlphaTauri driver was behind the only remarkable moment of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix but not for the right reason, as he brought out the sole Safety Car following an early incident at Turn 5, damaging his steering and forcing him to retire at Turn 6.
The Safety Car came out moments after Max Verstappen pitted, handing the lead to Sergio Perez, who would ultimately win the Grand Prix, narrowing the title race to just six points.
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“[It was] fully my mistake, my responsibility, silly and unnecessary and that is all I can say about it,” De Vries said.
“All I can do now is move on and look at the next… thankfully there is another race next weekend and we will have to look ahead to what’s coming.
“It is kind of an awkward corner because the wall comes towards you and I was just a bit too close. It is a mistake, fully on me, nobody else to blame and I made it.”
After his difficult start to the season, De Vries is fighting for his future in Formula 1 only four races into the season.
De Vries’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda has outperformed him consistently, providing the only points for the team so far, keeping them in ninth place in the Constructors’ race.
Given the availability of a host of talented reserve drivers and the former F1 drivers such as Daniel Ricciardo, De Vries will have to prove he is an asset to AlphaTauri if he wants a long career in the sport.
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“There is positivity to take away from certain moments and I think we have shown, since Jeddah, speed at given moments but for a lot of reasons and circumstances, we haven’t really been able to turn it into a concrete result,” De Vries added.
“That is very tough to swallow, hard, but the only way to move forward is to continue to look ahead and just follow the process.
“I personally believe things will turn around.”