De Vries sees AlphaTauri becoming more competitive: "Is encouraging"

Nyck de Vries will drive at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada for the first time this weekend. The AlphaTauri rookie is still looking for his first World Championship points of the season, hoping to finish in the top ten for the first time in Montreal as he looks ahead to what is to come.

"I think as a team we've shown good progress, and I'm really proud of the work we've done as a team since the beginning of this season to get closer towards the top ten." the 28-year-old driver said to Formula1.com's cameras. "I think we've shown that we are getting more and more competitive, and that's encouraging, so I'm very happy to be here and I'm enjoying Canada and Montreal. So I look forward to the weekend."

AlphaTauri more competitive

The Faenza-based racing stable introduced some updates in recent weeks, but they could not finish in a points-paid position last time out. Still, the feeling in the AT04 is much better than at the season opener in Bahrain. "Yes, so far we do [whether the updates make a difference]. But having said that, you know, our competition is also bringing development and, and, and updates to, yeah, to the track."

So to get anywhere near points, AlphaTauri will have to come up with new parts faster than the competition. There is quite a challenge there, but De Vries has a lot of confidence in his team. "I think if we take the first seven races and if we just draw kind of our competitiveness from, from the beginning to where we are now, we can really see an upwards trend which is encouraging."