Franz Tost, AlphaTauri’s team principal, is confident his team’s new signing Nyck de Vries should get up to speed and deliver good results soon in the 2023 Formula 1 season.
Nyck de Vries is gearing up for his F1 debut in a few weeks with AlphaTauri, where he replaced Pierre Gasly, the latter making the move to Alpine.
De Vries finally made his breakthrough into top flight after his impressive performance with Williams at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, replacing the team’s regular Alex Albon who needed surgery after suffering appendicitis.
De Vries’ point-scoring performance at Monza in 2022 put him on the F1 radar and was soon signed up by AlphaTauri with some help and advice from compatriot and double F1 Champion Max Verstappen.
Speaking during the livery launch of AlphaTauri’s 2023 F1 car, the AT04, team boss Franz Tost commented on his new driver and his expectations of him.
“Nyck has driven in only one Formula 1 race, last year in Monza, where he produced a fantastic performance,” Tost told the media.
“Nevertheless, he has a great deal of racing experience, winning races and championships in many of the categories that he took part in. Therefore, I’m quite sure that he will be able to deliver good results soon in the season, then to be finishing in the points in the races,” he explained.
De Vries one of the most technically adept drivers
One the main things a driver new to F1 has to deal with is the technical aspect of understanding the car, and giving proper feedback to the team and the engineers in order to develop it, but Tost insists he’s not worried that would create an issue for De Vries.
He pointed out: “Nyck is technically very highly-skilled and focused. When driving our car at the Abu Dhabi young driver test at the end of last season, he already gave the engineers good technical feedback.
“I think that he will immediately understand the new car. He will get familiar with the car quickly and his feedback will be useful because, as I said before, he understands the technical challenges that Formula 1 cars present.
“I believe he is one of the most adept drivers in terms of technical understanding of the car,” the 67-year-old Austrian maintained.
Tost seems to be more concerned about his other driver in the team, Yuki Tsunoda, who – entering his third season with AlphaTauri – is yet to live up the team’s expectations.
Tost has issued Tsunoda an ultimatum, expecting him to raise his game properly in 2023.