"He's been slow and he's been crashing" - Former F1 driver believes AlphaTauri's Nyck de Vries has not lived up to the hype

AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries has had a horrendous start to his F1 career in 2023. The Dutchman has made several mistakes while racing and even during practice and qualifying. Hence, there are huge question marks over whether he will remain on the grid in the near future.

Speaking on the Monaco GP preview video by F1, former F1 driver-turned-presenter Jolyon Palmer dissected how the de Vries' F1 career has panned out so far.Palmer said:

"I'm just surprised that he has started this badly as he has, and there is no other way to put it. He's been slow and he's been crashing, which is a bad mix, but I do still think that he's got talent there. I thought he would come in and lead the team with Yuki. I think we would probably agree that Yuki looks like he stepped up and really taken it on with Gasly leaving the team. I think it caught Nyck out a little bit."

Furthermore, Palmer stated that Nyck de Vries has a good amount of experience in other single-seater competitions. The Dutchman even proved himself in F1 with a brilliant drive in the 2022 F1 Italian GP, where he drove Alex Albon's Williams and scored points.

The former F1 driver hopes that the AlphaTauri rookie can recover from this, but he has his concerns.

"His pedigree is pretty good, and he showed what he can do last year in Monza, which was unbelievable, coming and getting the points with that Williams. So, I still think he can recover this, he really just needs a clean weekend, and Monaco, is not the place to try and recover it."

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AlphaTauri rookie supported new sprint race weekend format in Azerbaijan GP

Nyck de Vries supported the new sprint race weekend format that was tested in the 2023 F1 Azerbaijan GP. He is in favor of the concept and even claimed that three practice sessions are a bit too much. In an interview with De Telegraaf, he said:

“I'm looking forward to it, and I'm in favour of the concept, to make it part of the season at least a few times a year. During a normal weekend, I think three free practice sessions are a bit excessive anyway; two seems more than enough to me.”

There will be five more sprint race weekends in the 2023 F1 season after the Azerbaijan GP, with the next one coming in Austria in July. While the AlphaTauri driver is happy to have this race weekend, there are several drivers who dislike it as well.