Red Bull slammed for “way too early” sacking of de Vries

Dutch rookie de Vries was sacked by Red Bull just 10 races into his first-full season at AlphaTauri, with Daniel Ricciardo drafted in as his replacement to complete a surprise return to F1. 

But the latest example in a long line of ruthless decisions made by Red Bull over the years has not gone down well with some of de Vries’ fellow countrymen. 

“Racing is cruel and so are the decisions,” said Tom Coronel. 

“In my opinion, it’s way too early to make a decision about a driver when you’re not even halfway the season. 

“He had a good race in Silverstone and made progress throughout the season, even with the slowest car on-track. He’s not far behind from a team mate who’s having his third year with the team.

“Nyck has won every single race class he participated in: from karting, Formula 2, FE, superb performance in several endurance race cars and so on. I’m 100% sure a lot a F1 drivers don’t have a racing career like Nyck had already.

“There’s a lot more than F1, but [he] deserved to have a full season to show your progress.”

Fellow Dutchman and former Caterham F1 driver Giedo van der Garde expressed sympathy for de Vries. 

“Never expected it to be over so quickly for Nyck,” he wrote. 

“If you look back at it, the amount of time he was given to get used to the car and the progress he made (slowly but surely) it’s – in my opinion – been too soon. 

“As for Nyck, this hurts like a m*#%{f^]er.”

He added: “I remember when my career ended so quickly, I couldn’t watch a single metre of racing. That’s understandable, but let’s not forget this guy is quick as hell, has proven himself in a lot of categories and has a bright future in motorsport ahead of him.

“It might be too soon to focus on that, but important to keep in mind. Cheer up and you can be proud of yourself buddy.”

Two of de Vries’ former Formula E rivals also waded in on the debate. 

“When you axe a driver after 10 races it shows the process of making the hiring decision is wrong,” Lucas di Grassi wrote. 

“Motor racing relies too much on instinct or ‘one lap’ or ‘one race result’ instead of looking the long term norm of a specific driver. 

“So much methodology and data to make the car faster, so little to choose the right race driver.”

Meanwhile, Antonio Felix da Costa said: “Can only imagine how hard it must be to quickly get used to an F1, perform with only a couple days testing. 

“Nyck is getting closer to [Yuki] Tsunoda every weekend, who, let’s not forget, had to have a couple of bad days himself to get to this level."