Marko fierce over criticism of driver change: 'Find that really incomprehensible'

Helmut Marko has little sympathy for the criticism he has to endure as a result of the driver change at AlphaTauri. The Red Bull advisor sacked Nyck de Vries after just ten races. It earned Daniel Ricciardo a seat in Formula One. Speaking to Motorsport-total.com, the Austrian shines his light on the situation.

"Why was it brutal of me if he simply did not do well enough?", Marko wondered aloud. Critics felt that it would have been respectful if the Dutchman had been given at least until the summer break to improve himself or if he had been allowed to drive the Grand Prix at Zandvoort. "I find that really incomprehensible," Doctor Marko said. "It just didn't work."

The Red Bull man saw De Vries rebound in Baku. "He finally had competitive lap times then, but ended up in the crash barrier there. That's where he broke mentally." After the Silverstone Grand Prix, it was over. Daniel Ricciardo became Yuki Tsunoda's new teammate. "The smile has returned at AlphaTauri, and we can now see how good or bad the car really is with an experienced driver. We can also see how good Tsunoda really is now, because he was driving in no man's land." All in all, the former driver sees it as a win-win situation.