“He’s like a Niki Lauda”: Nyck de Vries compared to 3x F1 legend by former teammate Yuki Tsunoda 

AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda believes that ex-teammate, Nyck de Vries deserved to stay in the team for a couple more races. He believes the Dutchman gives excellent feedback to his team during race weekends.

De Vries, Red Bull's newest victim, was fired with immediate effect last week. He failed to register a single point in the first 10 races of his first full season on the Formula 1 grid.

F1 Grand Prix of Spain - Practice

According to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, De Vries "wasn't quite hitting the mark." He stated that he was a few tenths behind Tsunoda with no signs of progress.

But Tsunoda had a difference of opinion. He stated that de Vries had a way of giving feedback to the team and exactly pinpointing the problems.

"Especially feedback after the session to the team how the car how the car behaves, he was very specific, I’ve never seen that a driver saying very specific and describing every each detail,” he said (via PlanetF1).

He continued saying that De Vries' inputs during the briefings were similar to that of Niki Lauda's during his championship-winning day.

“I just saw Rush, Niki Lauda, he said really good feedback about the car. Probably he’s like a Niki Lauda,” he added.

Lauda's remarkable sensitivity to the behavior of both road and racing vehicles was highlighted in the 2013 Rush film. Tsunoda said that Nyck De Vries' remarks had the same attention to detail.

---

Nyck de Vries would return to Mercedes as a reserve driver in the near future

Mercedes Formula E Champion, Nyck de Vries was hired as a reserve driver for the Mercedes AMG Formula One team from 2020-2021.

During his time as a Mercedes reserve driver, he was also a substitute driver for teams like Williams, Aston Martin, and McLaren. He even replaced Alex Albon during the 2022 Italian Grand in Monza when Alex was recovering from appendicitis.

Nyck de Vries finally broke his silence after being dropped by AlphaTauri and posted on social media stating that he will be taking some time off.

Amidst the possible future option, Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes F1 engineering director, stated that the team would 'welcome' the Dutch driver to his previous role.

“He was certainly very useful for us in that role and would be welcome to get him back in that role. But I suspect his focus will be on finding race seats," he said (via Autosport).

Currently, Mick Schumacher has taken the role of a reserve driver for the team after failing to secure a new contract with Haas.