Nyck de Vries “had the pace” for F1, states AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda

Two weeks after Nyck de Vries' sudden exit from AlphaTauri, teammate Yuki Tsunoda expressed his personal opinion by stating that de Vries "had the pace" to be F1. Furthermore, Tsunoda added that he had learned from the Dutch driver during their 10-race stint as teammates.

Following the British GP, Nyck de Vries was sacked by Red Bull taskmaster Helmut Marko and was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo. While Tsunoda is looking forward to working with Ricciardo, he believes that de Vries had the experience and the pace to remain in the competitive sport. RaceFans.net quoted him saying:

"I had an enjoyable time over the past ten races with Nyck. I learned from him, and we also had a good time away from the track."

De Vries had plenty of experience under his belt being a former F2 and Formula E champion. Tsunoda added that the Dutch driver's feedback provided valuable insights to the team:

"He had plenty of experience in other categories and gave the team good feedback based on his knowledge. He had the pace and, as a friend, I enjoyed my time with him."

Despite the accolades he achieved in other racing categories, de Vries failed to translate that pace into F1, unfortunately. He out-qualified and finished ahead of his teammate on two occasions in their 10 outings together. Whilst Tsunoda dragged the car into points-paying results, he failed to add to the team's tally.

As such, the Japanese driver considerably outpaced Nyck de Vries. The 28-year-old rookie was expected to hit the ground running after a stellar debut in a Williams last season. However, Tsunoda in his third season had the better of his teammate.

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Red Bull team principal gives his opinion on Nyck de Vries sacking

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner recently spoke about their mid-season driver change in the junior team. Horner admitted that Nyck de Vries got off to a bad start and stated that the team had higher expectations, given his experience in other racing categories. Speaking in the F1 Nation podcast, Horner explained:

"It was becoming obviously a difficult situation for Nyck de Vries. But there was a high expectation on him because, whilst inexperienced in Formula 1, he's obviously a very experienced driver. I think there was a general feeling that Nyck wasn't quite hitting the mark."

Horner added that replacing De Vries with Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri would provide the senior team an opportunity to test out their third driver:

"And from a Red Bull Racing perspective, the most interesting option for me was to see how Daniel performs. So that was the decision that was made. It all happened pretty quick and here he is for the Hungarian Grand Prix."

As a result, Ricciardo will be in the spotlight at the Hungarian GP this weekend, as he gets his second chance in F1.