Helmut Marko’s brutal verdict on why Nyck de Vries was axed

De Vries did not score a single point in his 10 grands prix as a full-time F1 driver, most recently finishing 17th at Silverstone, ahead of only drivers who did not finish.

He has now become the latest Red Bull-affiliated driver to be brutally replaced, with Marko admitting he likely won’t ever get a second chance in F1.

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“We contracted Nyck because he performed well at Monza last year,” Red Bull consultant Marko told De Telegraaf about De Vries’ hugely impressive drive for Williams.

“We expected him to at least be equal to his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda this year but that was not the case. 

“He was always three-tenths of a second slower. We didn’t see any improvements.

“He’s 28, has a lot of experience, and has also been able to gain a lot of knowledge as a test driver in various F1 cars. 

“You can’t compare him to a young rookie.

“In Baku, he started the weekend well but then he crashed again.”

Clearly De Vries was coming under increasing pressure. 

Marko insisted: “We had to do something.

“Why should we wait? What do two more races matter if you don’t see any improvement? 

“Nyck is a very nice guy but the speed wasn’t there.”

Marko said another F1 opportunity will be “difficult” for De Vries and recommended he seeks a career in endurance racing.

Ricciardo, who impressed in a tyre test driving a Red Bull, is AlphaTauri’s replacement for the rest of this year.

“His lap times were competitive on three different tyre sets,” Marko said.

“If Ricciardo didn’t have the speed we would have had to consider something else.”