Debutant Nyck de Vries feels AlphaTauri will 'have to fight a bit' in 2023 F1 season

Nyck de Vries stated that AlphaTauri might have to fight it out in midfield in the 2023 season. The Red Bull sister team finished P9 in the 2022 constructor's championship and is looking to move further along the field this year.

The Italian team had a mixed pre-season test in Bahrain this week as they racked up the second-most number of laps, but faced certain fundamental issues with their car that might hamper their progress this season.

Speaking to RacingNews365, Nyck de Vries, who will race for the team in his first F1 season, mentioned that they were unsure of where they ended up after three days of testing:

"The car has a bit of everything, it's quite open. It's also a bit inherent to this track because the tarmac demands so much from the tires. So the grip is low and that does highlight a car's weaknesses."

"It's hard to estimate where we are after these three days, but I think we have to fight a bit to get into the middle of the midfield. Really, really fight, because it's not a given."

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"The car doesn't feel very different from last year" - Nyck de Vries' opinion about the AT04

Nyck de Vries pointed out that the 2023 challenger AT04 doesn't feel too different from the AT03 that the team ran last season:

"The car doesn't feel very different from last year. In general, most teams have some kind of evolution. It's mainly looking for little things that bring you more performance."

De Vries, who will enter his second F1 race next week, mentioned that during testing, he focused more on the long-run performances to better prepare himself for the race, adding:

"During my last morning, I mainly did a lot of long runs, focused on preparing for the race. "The conditions during those runs were of course not entirely relevant, as it was warmer than it would be during the race, but nevertheless, it was important to do it. I am therefore very satisfied with the test days. We were able to learn and complete a lot."

There are plenty of expectations for Nyck de Vries this season as he's touted to be the team leader for the team and replace Pierre Gasly, despite being a rookie in 2023. It would be interesting to see if he can push his teammate Yuki Tsunoda and, in due time, get ahead of him.