20/07/2023
NEWS STORY
Nyck de Vries opens up for the first time since his sacking by AlphaTauri admitting that though hurt by the decision he will move on.
His sacking came just ten races into the season, and while it was widely accepted that he would be dropped during the summer break, the youngster must surely have held out hope that he would get to contest his home race late next month.
Taking to Instagram, the F2 and Formula E champion commented for the first time since AlphaTauri's decision to drop him in favour of Daniel Ricciardo.
"Of course, it hurts that the F1 chance I dreamed of for so long ended prematurely," he writes. "But life is not a destination, it's a journey, and sometimes you have to take the hard road to get where you want to be.
"I am grateful for our privileged lives, proud of our journey and my family," he adds. "This is just another experience; we move on and look forward to the next chapter."
De Vries' comments come in the wake of further revelations from Red Bull boss, Christian Horner, who has admitted that he never wanted to sign the Dutchman in the first place.
"There was a high expectation on him because whilst inexperienced in Formula One he's obviously a very experienced driver," Horner told the F1 Nation podcast.
"I think there was a general feeling that Nyck wasn't quite hitting the mark," he added. "And then the question was 'What are the options if we were to switch things around?'
"He's not a young driver, I just didn't see how it fitted within the junior programme," he said of the Dutchman's recruitment. "It was always a stop gap."
Check out our Thursday gallery from the Hungaroring here.