Nyck de Vries suffered another pointless finish at the British Grand Prix after a tough race finishing in P17, but insists that he is still "feels good" with his position with the team. The Dutchman is under pressure to perform after a spate of poor results, which has led to Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko growing frustrated and openly admitting that he feels his decision to put him in the car is not going to plan. For his part, de Vries still feels his commitment and work ethic has not been affected by the external factors that could determine his short term future at AlphaTauri. "I am happy where I am, I still feel good within the team, I am loving what I'm doing. I'm giving my best and that's all I can do, nothing else to say," he told media, including RacingNews365.com . "My approach hasn't changed and my commitment work ethic hasn't changed, so we just need to the best we can." AlphaTauri brought a raft of upgrades to their troubled AT04 in Silverstone, including updates to their floor, a new rear suspension, rear wing and beam wing. These proved to make minimal effect on their performance, as Yuki Tsunoda qualified and finished in P16. He was over 30 seconds off Max Verstappen and a further 1.4s off Zhou Guanyu after being overtaken at the end by the Alfa Romeo.
Tsunoda outperforming De Vries
A look at the head-to-head between de Vries and Tsunoda over the last 10 races and it shows a the true extent of his lack of performance. The Dutchman has only managed to out-perform his teammate at the Monaco Grand Prix, after Tsunoda was nursing a brake issue in Monaco which forced him to pit and lose positions. Out of the two points the team has scored so far this year, only Tsunoda has brought home a top ten finish on two occasions at Australia and Azerbaijan. By comparison, AlphaTauri ended the 2022 season with 35 points on the board, so a lot will need to change if they want to match that with the 12 remaining races. If Red Bull grow impatient, they could employ the services of Daniel Ricciardo to see them through to the end of the year. The Australian has been open to a return to the team if it carves out a future for him at Red Bull, which is his ultimate goal.
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