Antonio-Felix da Costa knows what it's like to have one's F1 dreams abruptly shattered by Red Bull, and the works Porsche Formula E driver is full of sympathy for Nyck de Vries.
The axe fell earlier this week on de Vries in the wake of Daniel Ricciardo's Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone with Red Bull Racing.
The Aussie's performance convinced Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko to replace de Vries with Ricciardo at AlphaTauri with immediate effect.
Granted the Dutchman's seat with the Faenza-based outfit was rumored to be in jeopardy following Nyck's lacklustre performances this season. But cutting short the latter's tenure after just ten races was an extremely harsh decision by Marko, but not untypical of the ruthless Austrian.
Da Costa himself was once on the receiving end of Marko's pitiless management. As a Red Bull protégé who had enjoyed success in motorsport's junior categories, the Portuguese driver was hopeful of making the step to F1 with Toro Rosso in 2014.
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But he was ultimately overlooked in favor of fellow Red Bull junior Daniil Kvyat.
Last Tuesday, just hours before Red Bull's announcement, a prescient da Costa tweeted his thoughts on de Vries' difficult situation.
"Haven’t publicly spoken about this," he wrote. "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 Tsunoda every weekend, who, let’s not forget, had to have a couple of bad days himself to get to this level."
Porsche Formula E driver Antonio Felix da Costa
On Friday, ahead of this weekend's Rome E-Prix, da Costa shared his afterthoughts on de Vries' fate.
"Honestly, I tweeted that in the morning of that, maybe six or seven hours [before] – I had no idea that was going to happen that day," he told The Race.
"I had heard a few rumours, but I heard Nyck would have had a couple more races at least, so maybe he would have gone even to the end of the year.
"Things change very quickly in this sport, especially under the Red Bull banner, we know how ruthless they are.
"I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, that’s just the way it is. We all know that."
Da Costa noted that comparatively, Yuki Tsunoda had been given a free pass by Red Bull at the start of his tenure in F1 despite "having all those crashes".
"I just feel sad for Nyck, you don’t win Formula 2 and Formula E and don’t know how to drive," the Porsche charger concluded.
"I’m not too worried for him because I reckon he’ll be back on his feet. I think we can see him back here in Formula E, and I’m pretty sure we’ll see him in the WEC as well."
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