Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has revealed that Nyck de Vries won’t be getting replaced “in the coming races”, following reports that the Dutchman was set to be axed from AlphaTauri.
It was rumoured that Marko had given De Vries an ultimatum to improve in the upcoming triple-header or be replaced by Red Bull development driver Daniel Ricciardo; however, the Austrian has since denied any such rumour being true.
De Vries isn’t set to be replaced by Ricciardo should he struggle in the upcoming triple-header, although, the rookie has been spoken to by Marko.
The Dutchman’s biggest issue is arguably how well team-mate Yuki Tsunoda is performing, despite the Faenza-based team arguably having the worst car on the grid.
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All of AlphaTauri’s points this season have come thanks to Tsunoda, who has been one of the most consistent drivers so far this season.
De Vries on the other hand, has really struggled to demonstrate any consistency, with his performance at the Miami Grand Prix having not made his life any easier.
After having progressed to Q2, De Vries went on to hit Lando Norris at the opening corner of the race after braking too late, damaging both of their races.
He’s clearly struggled to adjust to F1, despite having scored points on his debut last season at the Italian Grand Prix, after replacing Alex Albon at Williams.
As a result, Marko has awarded De Vries a “yellow card”; however, the rookie is yet to receive his marching orders.
“Nothing will happen in the coming races,” said Marko in an interview with F1 Insider.
“We talked to de Vries and he agrees with us: he needs to improve. The gap to teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who is doing great, is too big.
“To speak in football player language, Nyck got the yellow card, but not the red one yet. If he improves, there will be no problem.”
Should De Vries fail to improve, then Marko will replace the Dutch driver with somebody from their junior team, with Ricciardo not being in contention to replace the AlphaTauri driver.
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Marko confirmed that the 33-year-old will not be put in a race seat, with Super Formula driver Liam Lawson or Formula 2 driver Ayumu Iwasa likely to be used should De Vries need to be dropped.
“In the worst-case scenario, we can fall back on our pool of young talent,” said Marko.
“We are talking about Liam Lawson and Ayumu Iwasa, not Ricciardo.