“This is a stopwatch championship” - F1 star named “worst-performing person” amidst Nyck de Vries sacking by David Coulthard

Former F1 driver David Coulthard recently slammed another F1 rookie while discussing how Nyck de Vries talk got sacked from AlphaTauri. De Vries was also a rookie in the sport but was unable to keep up with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Hence, after Red Bull successfully gauged their reserve driver, Daniel Ricciardo, de Vries was instantly sacked and replaced by the Australian.

Coulthard feels another F1 rookie, Logan Sargeant, is worse in terms of his on-track performance compared to his teammate, Alex Albon. While speaking on Channel 4, he stated that Nyck de Vries was around two-and-a-half tenths slower than Yuki Tsunoda. On the other hand, Logan Sargeant is almost half a second off Alex Albon.

David Coulthard said (via PlanetF1):

"I actually don’t think it’s a matter of time, it’s a matter of pace. This is a stopwatch championship, so you either deliver the lap time or you don’t. He was on average within about two-and-a-half tenths of Yuki Tsunoda, which actually, the worst-performing person on average is Logan Sargeant in the Williams."

The former F1 driver further explained how there are several aspects of Logan Sargeant that fit the sport and Williams perfectly. Coulthard stated that the F1 rookie is American and brings money to the team, which is somewhat of a win-win situation.

Lastly, he suggested that F1 drivers should solely be gauged based on lap times and not other perks that they bring.

"He’s [Logan Sargeant] half-a-second away from Alex Albon," Coulthard added. "He’s bringing money to the team, and given a bit of space, American, that fits, I guess, the overall growth of F1 right now. So I think we should only ever look at the lap time rather than...This isn’t a personality competition."

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Red Bull advisor explained why Nyck de Vries was dropped from AlphaTauri

It is well known that AlphaTauri is a sister team of Red Bull. The latter has always taken the main decisions in terms of adding and removing team personnel from AlphaTauri.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko recently explained why Nyck de Vries was sacked. As reported by De Telegraaf, he said:

"We expected De Vries to be equivalent to Tsunoda, but saw no improvement. We had to do something. Why should we wait and what does two extra races matter if you don't see any improvement? Nyck is a very nice guy, but the speed just wasn't there."

After the British GP, Nyck de Vries was sacked by the Red Bull seniors and Daniel Ricciardo went to AlphaTauri on loan till the end of the 2023 F1 season.