De Vries: You can’t please everyone, and I don’t like the result either

Nyck de Vries has taken it easy with all kinds of criticism after an unimpressive start to his first F1 season with AlphaTauri.

The Dutch driver made headlines last year when he unexpectedly replaced Alex Albon in a Williams at Monza and immediately scored two points to finish 9th on the fast Italian circuit. With a successful debut, the doors to F1 opened wider and he became Yuki Tsunoda’s new teammate when Pierre Gasly switched to Alpine F1.

After the first three stages, however, he still has no points on his account, although Tsunode managed to finish in the top ten in Australia. Nick is willing to admit that critical judgments are inevitable in this situation.

“People love Formula 1, it’s natural and our sport has a lot of fans. Everyone is watching it, so criticism is very acceptable, everyone is entitled to their own assessment and I respect that,” said de Vries in an interview with Formule1.nl. – But every racer has fans as well as those who do not support him. impossible to please everyone, and I believe that our affairs will gradually improve and go as they should.

I am working hard on this together with the team. I myself am not satisfied with the results, but progress is already noticeable in the two previous phases.

Two qualifying sessions in a row have developed well. When you’re fighting for positions in the back rows, and we’re in such a position now, sometimes you just need a bit of luck, while the changes for the better aren’t always obvious.

De Vries finished 14th in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and was classified 15th in Australia, although he failed to finish after being knocked off the track by Logan Sargent on his second restart. But his progress can really be followed by the results of three qualifications: if in the first stage of the season Nick started from 19th position, then in the second – from 18th, and in Albert Park – already from 15th.