Nyck de Vries has responded to the comments made by AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost, who claimed that he no longer had trust in his engineers after a poor start to their season.
AlphaTauri are yet to score points so far in 2023, with Yuki Tsunoda coming close in Saudi Arabia before getting overtaken by Kevin Magnussen in the closing stages of the race.
Tost had criticised the engineers of the AT04 earlier in the weekend, claiming that the severe lack of downforce is what is stopping them from progressing further up the field.
De Vries claims he felt no change in atmosphere within the team after Tost made the comments.
"I honestly think the vibe within the team is great and I felt no difference post certain comments that have been made," said De Vries.
"I think things can be taken a little bit out of context and we were all kind of scratching our heads. We all want to be as quick as Red Bull that is currently winning and dominating."
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AlphaTauri were one of the losers from the switch in technical regulations for 2022. From scoring 142 points and finishing sixth in 2021, the team slipped down to ninth and scored just 35 points in 2022.
Tost has spoken exclusively to RacingNews365.com about where the team needs to improve to regularly challenge the midfield, De Vries is aware of the pressure to make progress.
"So we're all trying to improve and work hard to make that progress, and so are we, and we are racers and we are passionate about what we do," he explained.
"But I felt no change within the ambience and atmosphere within the team.
"So I'm very happy where I am and I'm sure that we're all very keen to continue to push forward."
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