Nyck de Vries says there has been no change in the positive "vibe" within the AlphaTauri team in the wake of the brutal comments expressed by team boss Franz Tost who called into question his engineers' competence.
In Jeddah, Tost made the extraordinary admission that he had lost confidence in the squad's engineers after seeing the disappointing performance of the AT04 in the season opener in Bahrain.
"We struggled in Bahrain," he acknowledged at the time. "We have to do a lot of things to make the car faster, and especially on the aerodynamic side.
"There are different programmes going on, but the engineers tell me that we make some good progress. But I don't trust them anymore.
"During the winter months they told me the car is fantastic, we’re making big progress. And then we come to Bahrain, and we are nowhere. What should I say?"
©AlphaTauri
Tost's comments were interpreted as a tongue-in-cheek wake-up call to his technical staff. However, since Bahrain, AlphaTauri has only scored a single point, courtesy of Yuki Tsunoda's tenth-place finish in Melbourne last time out.
Inside the team, de Vries assures that Tost's put down has had no impact on the team's working atmosphere.
"I honestly think the vibe within the team is great and I felt no difference post certain comments that have been made," de Vries said.
"I think things can be taken a little bit out of context and I think we were all kind of scratching our heads and we all want to be as quick as Red Bull that is currently winning and dominating.
"So we’re all trying to improve and work hard to make that progress and so are we and we are racers and we are passionate about what we do.
"But I felt no change within the ambience and atmosphere within the team. So I’m very happy where I am and I’m sure that we’re all very keen to continue to push forward."
©AlphaTauri
Regarding AlphaTauri's "push forward", the team introduced a new floor in Australia, where de Vries was unfortunately collateral damage in the first corner chaos that took place after the race's second start.
More upgrades are set to follow, but the Dutchman noting that the Faenza-based squad is following an incremental development process.
"I think that all the little things we are constantly bringing - it's not like there is a game-changer, you're not going from P15 to P8 - all the little details are making a difference," he said in Australia.
"And constantly you're searching and finding more, and then you find yourself hopefully close to the top 10.
"Obviously we are closely working together. We are a team, working together and addressing and highlighting potential areas we can improve, and I think it's clear where we need to find performance.
"But equally it's a moving target, and it's all relative to competition, so it's also never good enough."
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