Helmut Marko was left impressed by Nyck de Vries performance at the Monaco Grand Prix. The Red Bull advisor has recently showed signs of impatience with de Vries, following a tough start to his first full season in Formula 1. The Dutchman has been involved in numerous crashes and struggled to match teammate Yuki Tsunoda, but in Monaco he managed to complete the weekend without incident and finish in a solid 12th place. Marko claims it was his "best weekend" for the team as he managed to beat Tsunoda, who suffered with brake issues midway through the race. "This was by far his best weekend for AlphaTauri," Marko said to Motorsport . "Nyck was much closer to Yuki than before. This is what I want to see from him. "Yuki was also really good until the brake problems came again. This is something that has to be solved by the team, they have brake problems so often."
Marko: de Vries has not challenged Tsunoda yet
The team brought de Vries in due to his experience winning the Formula 2 and Formula E championships, with the Dutchman's CV aided by outings with numerous teams as part of his Mercedes links in 2022. His race debut at Monza last year was enough to encourage Marko to give him the seat to replace Pierre Gasly, but so far his efforts have failed to materialise into results, as AlphaTauri trail behind in the Constructors' standings. "We thought we'd bring in someone with some experience already to challenge Yuki. But that didn’t happen yet, so that is the most important thing," said Marko. This has led to speculation that de Vries could be replaced if his form does not improve in the next couple of races, with both the Monaco and Spanish Grands Prix weekends being critical in Red Bull's evaluation. De Vries has yet to score points so far in 2023, but this performance in Monaco coming after out-qualifying Tsunoda in Miami could be an important step towards retaining his seat for the foreseeable.
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