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In a recent podcast, Helmut Marko admitted that he and Horner disagreed on De Vries and that Horner is “not a fan”.
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – MARCH 18: Nyck de Vries of Scuderia AlphaTauri and The Netherlands chats with Franz Tost of Scuderia AlphaTauri and Austria and Helmut Marko of Red Bull Racing and Austria during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on March 18, 2023 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images)Nyck de Vries signed with AlphaTauri for the 2023 season last year after an impressive drive at Monza for Williams. Despite an incredible debut in 2022, the Dutch driver has noticeably been struggling at AlphaTauri and has even been given an ultimatum.
On the Inside Line F1 Podcast, Helmut Marko has now revealed that he and Christian Horner disagreed on signing De Vries. As AlphaTauri is part of the Red Bull family and is effectively a junior team, Marko stated that everyone weighs in on the decision somewhat.
“It is AlphaTauri , but as we are a big family I would say we are at least getting opinions.”
On signing De Vries, Marko made clear that he and Horner disagreed on him and even Franz Tost, team principal at AlphaTauri, had other options ahead of De Vries.
“The last one where I would say [himself and Horner disagreed], Nyck de Vries. And at the moment it looks like he [Horner] is right.”
“He [Horner] was not so big a fan of Nyck de Vries”
Marko spoke about how Tost wanted to sign Schumacher but ultimately they decided on De Vries with one of the reasons being that De Vries would benefit from a seat at a junior team more.
What does this mean for the future of AlphaTauri?
Unfortunately for Nyck de Vries, things aren’t looking up. De Vries is yet to score points, along with Logan Sargeant, and his teammate Tsunoda has put in much more encouraging performances. Although Tsunoda has only scored two points, he has put in some impressive performances whilst De Vries has crashed multiple times and made silly mistakes.
With recent talk about who could replace the Dutchman at AlphaTauri, one name has cropped up a number of times. Daniel Ricciardo, who is back in the Red Bull family, is being touted to join AlphaTauri. In this regard, we know Horner would support this move as he is a big fan of Ricciardo and AlphaTauri in general know that Ricciardo can make results happen for them.
Feature Image Credit: XPB Images
