De Vries meets Marko approach: 'If you did that to Max, he responded'

Nyck de Vries has had a difficult start to the season. The Dutchman, unlike teammate Yuki Tsunoda, has yet to collect any points and on top of that, he went wrong several times. Helmut Marko recently gave him'the yellow card' and so De Vries knows what he needs to do: improve. Damon Hill doubts this is the way to help the 28-year-old Dutchman get better performances.

According to rumours, by the time the Spanish Grand Prix is scheduled, the rookie must show that he can perform better than he does now. If he fails to do so, there are possible consequences for his future with the AlphaTauri team. At least De Vries knows what awaits him after his evaluation meeting with Marko.

Marko tough teacher

Hill: "There is a lot of pressure. He's [Marko] a tough teacher, isn't he? He's a tough kind of master for drivers. And it always has been. I don't know where it comes from. I mean, he was obviously very hard on himself as a racing driver. Some people believe that that is the way to get the best out of racing drivers."

However, the one-time world champion hints that he doesn't think it works that way with everyone. "But I think more than often, if you did that to Max, he responded. And he delivered. So there is an argument to say, well, the tough will survive. And the weak will have to be discarded. But the turnover at Red Bull, this is a fairly typical routine, isn't it? They take the driver through halfway through the season. And then they go, right, you're out. Someone else is in. And they get a chance to find out how the other driver coped. So they actually turn over quite a few drivers that way and get them to find out what they really like. And how else?", Hill said.

Giving up for rookies is tough

Natalie Pinkham adds and says she was told that Yuki Tsunoda was given kind of the same message as De Vries prior to the season. "He was obviously nervous about coming up against Nyck," said the Sky Sports journalist, who saw De Vries excel at the perfect time in last year's Monza Grand Prix. "He's been snapped up, it felt like he had his choice about where to go. And then suddenly reality sets in. And he's got a hard task. As has Logan Sargent."

As a rookie, Pinkham says it is simply very difficult to get the most out of the first seven races of a season. At the same time, she knows that in Formula 1, there is no time to get used to it. "Just how hard these first, probably, seven races are for rookies. You know, it's a baptism of fire. But that is Formula One. And it's kind of the pressure cooker that they've worked so hard to get into.They now have to survive it."