AlphaTauri says it expects new-for-2023 signing Nyck de Vries to be “very competitive” from his first outing for the team in Bahrain next year.
De Vries was confirmed an an AlphaTauri driver for the 2023 Formula 1 season after holding talks with Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko over a seat at the Faenza-based outfit.
After being overlooked by F1 teams despite his title successes in F2 and Formula E, De Vries’ stand-in appearance for Williams at Monza – where he finished an impressive P9 on debut – elevated his chances of securing a place on next year’s grid.
While Williams and Alpine considered De Vries for a seat, advice from newly-crowned world champion Max Verstappen saw him open discussions with AlphaTauri when it became clear it would be willing to let Pierre Gasly leave.
Once Gasly’s move to Alpine was agreed, it paved way for De Vries to secure a full-time F1 seat, and AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost has high expectations for when the Dutch driver begins racing for the team next year.
“I expect that this learning period for Nyck will be reduced to a couple of tests,” Tost said after De Vries was confirmed alongside Yuki Tsuonda at last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
“That means I expect him to be very competitive from the first race onwards in 2023.”
De Vries is not expected to drive for AlphaTauri in an FP1 session for the rest of the season due to his role as Mercedes’ reserve driver, but Tost is hopeful “we can see him in Abu Dhabi in the young driver test” next month.
Despite AlphaTauri losing one-time grand prix winner Gasly, it will continue to field Tsuonda for a third successive year, who Tost wants to make a step forward as he takes on greater responsibilities as the team’s more experienced driver.
But while Tsuonda has more grand prix starts under his belt, there is “a lot” expected of De Vries given his experience of racing in other categories.
“The guidance of the team depends on the performance of the car,” said Tost. “If we have a good car, it’s easy for both drivers. If we have problems in the car, then I think that it will not be so easy to sort out everything, because Nyck hasn’t so much F1 experience.
“Yuki is still in a learning process – but I think that Yuki next year should be matured enough to give technical guidance. Nevertheless, I expect a lot from Nyck because he has experience from the racing categories where he won races and championships and therefore once more if the car works, I think that we will have a successful year.”
