New Delhi:- Red Bull Racing's team principal Christian Horner admitted last month that he had been skeptical of Nick de Vries' AlphaTauri F1 deal from the beginning, as de Vries is already in a difficult situation within Red Bull's organization. It seemed like one of the worst omens of what was to come.
Horner's opinion was first conveyed by Red Bull's motorsport advisor, Helmut Marko. He was the man who defended De Vries on behalf of Williams' Alex Albon at last year's Italian Grand Prix. And last week, in Horner's first interview since De Vries stepped down in favor of Daniel Ricciardo, it was revealed that Marco never misrepresented Horner's attitude towards De Vries. Rather, he may have underestimated it.
Horner's comments on the in-house podcast F1 Nation were diplomatic and highly respectful, but there was a clear undertone that De Vries' contract was a mistake that needed to be fixed urgently. The most revealing comment was Horner's response to presenter Tom Clarkson's question whether keeping De Vries in the race until at least his home race in the Netherlands was considered. After summer ends, the second half of the season begins. Take a break in late August.
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"Of course, that would mean leaving him in his car until the end of the summer vacation," Horner said."I think the situation was clear.De Vries hiring and firing reveal serious problems at Red Bull F1."It was like, 'Okay, what's the point in waiting?'’ "If we want to do something, it would be nice to give Daniel 12 races and see what he can do."
Earlier in the episode, Horner was asked to confirm that he had always had concerns about welcoming De Vries to the Red Bull group, and was quick to say "yes".
Horner's main objection is that bypassing the driver, who was 27 years old at the start of the season and was part of the Mercedes F1 system as a reserve player for all teams, would not be possible if the junior driver program were to be expanded and focused on human resource development. It was strange for a company with finished.
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"Look, Nick is a very capable driver, a Formula E champion and a Formula 2 champion, obviously with a lot of experience. He's not a young driver for his age," Horner said. "And I had no idea how it fit into the junior program. It was mostly a stopgap."
Before his debut in F1, De Vries won the Formula E world title with Mercedes, made a number of races in LMP2, tested Mercedes' F1 car and practiced on Friday, and had Aston Martin and Williams out. Horner was able to score a goal that would mark a landmark season in Formula 1, something he felt he would have been.
"Expectations were high for him because he has little experience in F1 but is clearly a very experienced driver," he said."And I think there was a general feeling that Nick was missing the point."
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The announcement that Ricciardo would replace Hungarian de Vries came on the day of his first F1 test since leaving McLaren. That day he represented Red Bull at the Pirelli test at Silverstone. Asked how exactly the decision was communicated, Horner said Marko called De Vries because Red Bull didn't need to see Ricciardo much to find out about the end of De Vries. said to have suggested.
"Considering that we weren't done with the tests yet, everything went a little faster than expected," Horner admitted. "Helmut spoke to Nick. He was obviously the one who recruited him and I think it was him who spoke to Nick around lap 11 of testing.
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Christian Horner hired De Vries as he has won Formula 3 and also formula 2 so he knew De Vries had a great experience in driving Formula cars but things didn’t go as planned and Horner is almost on the way to remove De Vries from the team.