Van der Garde: 'If Marko had calmed down a bit, De Vries could have done the same'

The Dutch Formula One fan unfortunately saw how Nyck de Vries willalready have to relinquish his seat to Daniel Ricciardo after tenFormula 1 Grands Prix in 2023. His performance could not pleaseHelmut Marko and his men, and not for the first time the Austrianproved implacable. Did Daniel Ricciardo (and also Liam Lawson) showenough after that to prove that Red Bull/AlphaTauri's choice wasjustified? "A difficult question," judges Giedo van der Garde in anexclusive interview with RacingNews365 . The former F1 driver isbetween two minds on the subject. "Purely on paper, then you willsay yes. But that's not entirely fair. After all, don't forget thatthe AlphaTauri was completely jerky at the beginning of the seasonand that Yuki Tsunoda couldn't handle it either. "Nyck wasstruggling and was under mega pressure after just a few races. Weknow how difficult it is when Helmut Marko yells every weekend thatit has to be better, that it has to be faster, that you have to beahead of Tsunoda, because you are supposed to be the team leader.Then you snap at some point." I know how good, how fast and howdedicated Nyck is Giedo van der Garde 'That takes half a year tothree quarters of a year' According to Van der Garde, De Vries wasalso put by the wrong, unfair yardstick: "Of course, it's notnormal to think that when you're new to Formula 1 you can attractsuch a team to you in one go. That takes half a year tothree-quarters of a year. But everyone thought after that one racein the Williams (at 2022 Italian GP) that he would just show itoff, but that's not how it works." "So it's a terrible shame thathe wasn't given more time," continued Van der Garde. "It's also aguy who sometimes needs a little longer to show what he really hasup his sleeve and I know how good he really is and above all howdedicated he is." AlphaTauri only managed to pull away from lastplace among constructors in the closing 2023 with some fine pointsfinishes. Could De Vries have contributed to that as well? Hisformer Racing Team Netherlands teammate has no doubt about that atall. "I think so, yes. He would have been better in his rhythm bythat time and maybe Helmut Marko would have been a bit calmer andmore relaxed by that time as well, because there were some pointson the scoreboard anyway. "When the team is more relaxed, youautomatically start performing better. You become more one with thecar. So I think what those guys showed, Nyck could have shown aswell."