De Vries hears team boss Tost is to leave: 'Was somewhat surprised'

"I wasn't involved in it at all. So in that sense I was somewhat surprised," De Vries first responded to the announcement of the news in Azerbaijan. Speaking to GPblog and others, he continued, "Of course, you always hear some rumours, but one: I have no control over it and two: it is beyond me. I don't deal with that. I was somewhat surprised."

How AlphaTauri's employees reacted to the news, De Vries is not too sure. "I think they only received the news yesterday. I don't know. Everyone is heartily professional and wants to do as good a job as possible. That's no different than usual," he says.

This weekend will be ridden under the new sprint format, with only one free practice and two qualifying sessions. "New challenges are always fun. One free practice and direct qualifying is of course different from three free practices. I'm looking forward to it." In 60 minutes, De Vries has to tune his AT04. According to himself, this is not really a disadvantage:"It's the same for everyone."

De Vries thinks the sprint weekends are an addition to Formula 1. "Personally, I think three free practice sessions is also too much, two is the right balance for me. I am in favour of the concept though. Not the whole season, but to introduce it a few times a year and make it part of, I think is good." He likes the current number of six sprint races, there doesn't have to be a whole lot more or less.