Nyck De Vries was frustrated with his performance in Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
De Vries, who had never driven around the Jeddah Chornice Circuit before last weekend, endured a torrid event, missing FP3 due to AlphaTauri changing his power unit.
Following his second Q1 elimination of the season, De Vries struggled for pace in the race, finishing well behind teammate Yuki Tsunoda in 14th.
“I’m personally not satisfied with my job at the start or the safety car restart,” said De Vries to the media. “I think I was not attacking enough and a bit too conservative.
“It was hard to judge the balance between managing the tyres and pushing at this track. It appeared to be almost not part of the equation. You could almost push flat out.
“Then you lose one position, you’re a little bit on the back, and then you’re stuck in a DRS train and find yourself stuck in a DRS train in traffic before the train breaks up.”
Necessity to analyse AlphaTauri’s lack of progress
De Vries and AlphaTauri haven’t endured a good start to the 2023 season, with the Faenza-based outfit yet to score a point in the first two races for the first time since 2010.
The lack of on-track success adds to the turbulent atmosphere at AlphaTauri, following speculation the team could be sold and Franz Tost admitting before the weekend he doesn’t trust his engineers anymore.
“You got to be honest and look at the whole picture,” said De Vries. “We were discussing [about] fighting for Q2, but when I did my analysis, I’m thinking we didn’t deserve to be in Q2.
“We just need an extra push to be in the midfield and capitalise on all those mistakes, but I feel like I’m personally progressing. I definitely feel stronger than [in] Bahrain and a bit more comfortable. I have a bit more learning to do.”
