Christian Horner 'was right' not to sign Nyck de Vries, insists Red Bull F1 chief 

Red Bull F1 advisor Helmut Marko claimed that team boss Christian Horner was 'correct' in advising him not to sign Nyck de Vries for the AlphaTauri seat.

The Dutchman joined the Red Bull stable after he impressed everyone with his one-off performance at the 2022 Italian GP where he finished in the points with the Williams F1 team, replacing the ailing Alex Albon. Marko quickly signed de Vries for the AlphaTauri seat to replace the departing Pierre Gasly.

However, while appearing on the Inside Line Podcast, Marko mentioned that Horner had advised him against the move and said:

“The team management and the team principal, it’s a common decision. Not often [does he disagree with Christian Horner], but sometimes we do. The last one, I would say, is Nyck de Vries. And at the moment, it looks like he [Christian Horner] was right… He was not a fan of Nyck de Vries.”

AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost was more sympathetic toward Nyck de Vries and added:

"He just needs to get the confidence – and we have to provide him with a good car. I said to him he should stay concentrated, he should stay confident, because we all know he can do a good job."

Nyck de Vries previews his Austrian GP weekend

Nyck de Vries recognized that both he and the team are lacking performance currently in the 2023 season but hopes they can fight for points at Red Bull's home race this weekend.

He said, as per RacingNews365:

"I think as a team we're just lacking a little bit overall in terms of competitiveness and pace. We'll see where we can improve and come back at the Red Bull Ring. Quite a few of our competitors brought updates for this weekend, so we need to see and understand where we are relative to them and hopefully, we'll be back [in the fight soon]."

He added:

"Our competitors brought some updates [in Canada], we were pretty competitive in the past two weekends, so it felt like [we were] maybe lacking a little bit [during the Canadian GP weekend]. We'll see what we can learn and improve for the next one, and hopefully, we'll be back to fight for points."

De Vries needs a solid weekend where he can be close or outqualify and outrace his teammate Yuki Tsunoda to prevent putting his F1 career in danger for next season.