De Vries not dissatisfied after debut race for AlphaTauri: 'Pretty encouraging'

For Nyck de Vries, his first season as a regular Formula 1 driver did not start as he might have hoped. Yet the Dutchman is not dissatisfied: he managed to come back from the last row on the grid to 14th place and thinks there might have been more in it.

AlphaTauri haven't fixed all the problems from the difficult 2022 F1 season. Nevertheless, De Vries was positively surprised by what the AT04 turned out to have to offer, he told GPblog and others ."In all honestly, I think we were encouraged to find out we are fighting in the midfield," he said. "It was positive that we could fight with the others."

De Vries not dissatisfied with race

De Vries managed to gain a number of positions: partly helped by the bad luck of others, but also partly thanks to the progress AlphaTauri made over the course of the weekend. A missed opportunity during the final virtual safety car prevented him from climbing further up the final standings, according to De Vries.

"We decided to stay out during the VSC which maybe would have paid off differently if we did but points were not realistic however a P12 fight could've been maybe doable. Overall, I am fairly encouraged by this race," the 28-year-old continued.

"I think we were right up there. If we had qualified a little bit better, we would've been in the mix. It's encouraging to experience the race pace was decent. But also shows we need everything to come together to score points," De Vries concluded.