Colleagues support ousted De Vries: 'Incredibly harsh'

Following his forced departure from AlphaTauri, Nyck de Vries has yet to respond publicly. His former colleagues from Formula E - the electric series in which the Dutchman became world champion in 2021 - are now speaking out. They openly support De Vries, recognising a pattern at Red Bull Racing.

On the morning of De Vries' dismissal, while there were only the rumours, Felix da Costa tweeted: "Haven’t publicly spoken about this. Can only imagine how hard it must be to quickly get used to an F1, perform with only a couple days testing. Nyck is getting closer to Tsunoda every weekend, who, let’s not forget, had to have a couple of bad days himself to get to this level."

Haven’t publicly spoken about this. Can only imagine how hard it must be to quickly get used to an F1, perform with only a couple days testing. Nyck is getting closer to Tsunoda every weekend, who, let’s not forget, had to have a couple of bad days himself to get to this level https://t.co/KvuwfOqRKr

— Antonio Felix da Costa (@afelixdacosta) July 11, 2023

'Red Bull is ruthless'

A few hours later, there was bad news for De Vries: Daniel Ricciardo was replacing him at the Italian team with immediate effect. Barely ten Grands Prix, therefore,, De Vries was given a chance before Helmut Marko rocked him aside. The Race spoke to Felix da Costa on Friday afternoon and asked him about his feelings on the sacking. "I had heard a few rumours but I heard Nyck would have had a couple more races at least, so maybe he would have gone even to the end of the year," the Portuguese driver told The Race, calling Red Bull's decision 'incredibly harsh'. "Things change very quickly in this sport, especially under the Red Bull banner; we know how ruthless they are. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. That’s just the way it is, we all know that."

A few years ago, the then-rookie Yuki Tsunoda also started his F1 career rather shakily. The Japanese failed to match the times of his teammate Pierre Gasly and there were the requisite crashes. Nevertheless, Red Bull retained confidence in the Japanese from AlphaTauri. With De Vries, there is less patience. "Unfortunately for Nyck that just wasn’t the case; with Daniel sniffing around and such a huge personality that he is, that pressure would have always been in there, also with Liam Lawson doing well as well in Super Formula, It just didn’t pan out for Nyck," said Felix da Costa, who expressed his opinion that De Vries is definitely a good driver.

Kvyat had the same experience

Daniil Kvyat knows better than anyone what it is like to be sidelined by Red Bull. In fact, it happened to the Russian on several occasions. These days, Kvyat competes in the WEC. He may also compete in Formula E next season, which is why he participated in the rookie test on Friday. Kvyat also reacted to De Vries' departure from the Red Bull stable. "But it’s a tough environment and a tough world, especially there in Red Bull. It can get extremely competitive. That’s the way it goes, sometimes