“We know how difficult it is when Helmut Marko yells every weekend”: Red Bull advisor blasted by former teammate of axed F1 driver

Former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde and an ex-teammate of Nyck de Vries recently criticized Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko for putting extra pressure on the Dutchman while he was in F1 driving for AlphaTauri. One of the highlights of the 2023 F1 season was when Nyck de Vries was sacked from the AlphaTauri by Red Bull in the middle of the season. He was then replaced by reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Speaking to RacingNews365, Van der Garde opened up on how De Vries was under immense pressure from Red Bull seniors. He blamed Helmut Marko for yelling every race weekend where the Dutchman was unable to perform better than his teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

“Nyck was struggling and was under mega pressure after just a few races. We know how difficult it is when Helmut Marko yells every weekend that it has to be better, that it has to be faster, that you have to be ahead of Tsunoda, because you are supposed to be the team leader. Then you snap at some point,” he said.

De Vries' former teammate from Racing Team Nederland in the WEC understands how difficult it can be to race for a team like AlphaTauri right after one good race with Williams. However, he still feels that the Dutchman should have been given more time to adjust and show his talent.

“Of course, it is not normal to think that when you are new to Formula 1, you can attract such a team to you in one go. That takes six months to three-quarters of a year. But everyone thought after that one race in the Williams that he would show it, but it doesn’t work like that. It is therefore incredibly unfortunate that he was not given more time,” he said.

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Helmut Marko on why Red Bull sacked Nyck de Vries

Since Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko mainly looks over which driver drives for Red Bull or AlphaTauri, he explained why he and other seniors of the team had to remove Nyck de Vries from the Faenza-based team. As reported by De Telegraaf, he said:

"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."

Nyck de Vries did not score any points in the 10 F1 races he participated in. In those 10 races, he had to retire the car twice in Australian and Baku due to accidents.