What else was behind de Vries' early exit?
When Gasly wanted to move on last summer despite having just signed a contract extension, AlphaTauri had no one lined up to take his place. They chased IndyCar star Colton Herta but couldn't get the necessary superlicence points exception from the FIA to make him eligible to race in F1. They were tempted by Mick Schumacher, but ultimately their attention was drawn to former Formula E champion Nyck de Vries who had caused such a stir standing in for a poorly Albon at Williams in the 2022 Italian GP.
Paddock rumours have it that Red Bull principal Christian Horner was always unimpressed by this decision. Perhaps that contributed to the team quickly souring on the Dutch driver when he failed to score a single point in the first ten races of the most recent season. The team didn't even wait for the traditional summer break to take decisive action, announcing it was dropping de Vries in the fortnight between the British and Hungarian GP weekends, displaying even more cold-blooded ruthlessness than usual.
Was that too soon to make a ruling on whether de Vries should stay in the seat? At the time Williams' Logan Sargeant was also scoreless while McLaren's Oscar Piastri - the third of the three rookies - was on 17 points. Sargeant not only survived but was kept on for 2024, while Piastri blossomed into a sprint race winner. So why cull de Vries? In terms of how the season unfolded from there, AlphaTauri picked up eight points from de Vries' successors Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson and finished the season P8 in the final constructors standings. But that would still have been case even if de Vries had been allowed to see out a full season without scoring.
It looks like the sudden disembarking of de Vries was more to do with non-racing considerations: Horner being non-plussed by the original decision to sign him, perhaps, as part of a rumoured falling out between himself and Marko over control of the team in the wake of the death of Dieter Mateschitz in 2022. Or possibly a way of applying pressure to Sergio Perez who was struggling mid-season, by making it clear than Daniel Ricciardo was back in play and ready to take over. The latter might also explain why Ricciardo was favoured over Liam Lawson for 2024. If so then it wasn't just de Vries who was treated poorly by the team, but Lawson as well who achieved everything he was asked in his five races subbing for the injured Ricciardo but then tossed back on the sidelines as his reward.
Franz Tost won't miss this sort of thing now he's stepped down as team principal. It will be interesting to see if his successor Laurent Mekies takes a different approach to recruitment and retention going forward, or whether Marko's time and influence at Faenza and in F1 has reached the end of the road.
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
