Former Red Bull prodigy and Mick Schumacher adversary supports Helmut Marko's 'ruthlessness' in firing Nyck de Vries

Former Red Bull junior and Formula E driver Dan Ticktum has spoken about how he agrees with the team's advisor Helmut Marko's decision of removing Nyck de Vries from AlphaTauri. De Vries was recently sacked by the Italian team, with Daniel Ricciardo returning to the grid.

Speaking to Total-Motorsport.com, Ticktum spoke about the Red Bull advisor's ruthlessness and how he understands it. Ticktum went on to explain how massive the Austrian-British team is and how a strict senior like Dr. Marko is needed at such a company.

"I haven’t seen many decisions like that from Helmut for a little while, so I thought potentially he’s mellowed in his old age! But he’s definitely still got it. He’s still got the ruthlessness. I get it from his side. A team and a company as big as Red Bull, they can’t afford to wait for someone to get up to speed. They need someone to perform straightaway," he said.

Furthermore, Ticktum understands that AlphaTauri's 2023 F1 car was not the easiest to drive. However, he stated that he still agrees with most of Helmut Marko's decisions.

"Unfortunately, I think the AlphaTauri was obviously a difficult car to drive, and Nyck struggled a little bit, so I understand why he’s been kicked out, albeit harshly. Maybe sometimes it’s a bit far, but I think on the whole, I actually agree with a lot of the decisions Helmut makes," Ticktum added.

Dan Ticktum was not shy to mention how he himself was dropped by the Red Bull advisor. Despite that, he understands that Dr. Marko does not have time to delve into the details of why a driver is not performing.

"I can potentially have bad blood with him with how I was dropped, but I think overall, he just doesn’t have time to delve into the details because he’s so busy. If the results aren’t there for whatever reason, they just go, ‘right we will get another driver. There are plenty of other good drivers out there’. He doesn’t bother so much with the detail, so I kind of get it to be honest," Ticktum concluded.

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Helmut Marko's assessment of Nyck de Vries and why he was sacked from AlphaTauri

After removing Nyck de Vries from the AlphaTauri seat, Red Bull senior Helmut Marko gave his reasoning as to why he took such a harsh decision.

As reported by De Telegraaf, Dr. Marko stated that de Vries was not able to match his teammate Yuki Tsunoda and was not showing any improvement over the course of half a season.

"We expected De Vries to be equivalent to Tsunoda, but saw no improvement. We had to do something. Why should we wait and what does two extra races matter if you don't see any improvement? Nyck is a very nice guy, but the speed just wasn't there," Marko said.

Daniel Ricciardo, who has replaced de Vries after coming to AlphaTauri on loan will start his first race after leaving F1 at the Hungarian GP.