Why Red Bull signing Nyck de Vries is a MISTAKE!

Red Bull has announced the signing of Nyck de Vries as the replacement for Pierre Gasly at AlphaTauri. This makes De Vries one of the oldest drivers to ever be part of the Red Bull sister team in all these years. The Dutch driver made a spectacular debut at Monza where he scored points for Williams. He's a former Formula E champion and a former Formula 2 champion as well.

The driver will be paired alongside Yuki Tsunoda as AlphaTauri begins life after Pierre Gasly. De Vries was unsurprisingly happy and excited to be joining the team. In the team's press release, he said:

“I’m extremely excited to be joining Scuderia AlphaTauri for 2023 and I want to thank both Red Bull and the team for giving me the opportunity to drive in F1. After Formula 2, I took a slightly different path with motorsport, but F1 has always been my dream and I’m grateful to be able to fulfill it."

He continued:

"I’ve had a lot of chances to experience the 2022 car this year and I think that has put me in a great position for the upcoming season, I hope this has helped to prepare me for what is to come."

Now, all of this looks good for now. Nyck De Vries gets a shot at F1 after years of toil, and it's safe to say that he deserves it.

Having said that, Red Bull signing Nyck De Vries for AlphaTauri is a mistake by the team.

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Is Nyck De Vries Red Bull material?

This is a question that needs further delving into. The drivers that made it to F1 from the Red Bull junior program have shown immense capability and have done very well against their peers in the junior categories.

Nyck De Vries' junior category results are somewhat non-impressive if you take into account the fact that he was much older than the entire grid he competed against. He was sixth in GP3 when Charles Leclerc won it, despite being 2 years older than the Monegasque.

In his two non-championship winning years in F2, he lost to the likes of Leclerc, Russell (3 years younger) and Norris (5 years younger). When Nyck De Vries did win the title, he beat Nicholas Latifi to the championship in what was one of the weakest grids in F2 in recent times. The championship win in Formula E is impressive, but we have to keep in mind that he also finished ninth in the same championship this season.

When we talk about a driver that is going to represent Red Bull, we talk about potential race winners and potential championship contenders. We look at drivers like Verstappen, Ricciardo, Gasly, Sainz, and even Kvyat, who have shown the potential to do that.

Has De Vries done that so far? He's shown that he can be a solid, consistent driver throughout his career. But someone that Red Bull tends to give the opportunity? Not really!

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At 28, what is his career trajectory?

Another factor that should be taken into consideration is the fact that Nyck de Vries will be 28 years of age when he debuts with AlphaTauri next season. He's breaking the mold as he is someone that's not in his early 20s like Yuki Tsunoda or even Pierre Gasly.

This is something that would not have escaped Red Bull as well when they decided to sign him. The question though is what the future holds for him? He's got big boots to fill in for Pierre Gasly. If AlphaTauri does get its act together next yer in terms of the car, pressure will be on the drivers to bring the heat in that scenario.

For De Vries, what will be the career trajectory? If he spends two years at AlphaTauri, a standard time given to a driver to prove that he belongs in the sport, he will be 30 by then.

What kind of role does the team have in mind for De Vries? Is he someone that is destined to replace Perez at Red Bull in the coming years? Will he be someone that gets the team support just like a young driver does? There are a lot of questions around the career trajectory that De Vries could have once he joins AlphaTauri.

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Was the debut at Monza misleading?

While it might be unfair to undermine the spectacular debut by De Vries at Monza, there is something to be said about the competition he had that weekend. Looking at the F1 Italian GP weekend in hindsight, it was the perfect storm for De Vries.

Williams is categorically one of the worst cars on the F1 grid right now. It is, however, a bullet in a straightline. The car was always going to work well around Monza. This was further demonstrated by the impressive showing from Alex Albon on the first day of the run.

For De Vries, he walked into a team on the track where the car was suited the most, against a teammate who has not achieved a lot. De Vries had to beat Nicholas Latifi that weekend. Kudos to him for achieving that, but at the end of the day, that's not a benchmark you should be compared to in F1.

Would De Vries have been this impressive if Alex Albon was in the second seat? Arguably not! Somewhere this weekend, where he scored points in Monza, did end up with him getting more credit than warranted.

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If not Nyck de Vries, then who?

Arguably, the most important question is this. If not De Vries, who could Red Bull have picked to replace Pierre Gasly? There were multiple names that were mentioned. The first was Mick Schumacher, a name that has undoubtedly struggled this season and is a tough sell now. The Red Bull juniors have been a bit of a disappointment with none of them being truly impressive in F2 over the last few seasons.

There was, however, a left-field choice that was on the table. It was former Red Bull academy driver Jack Doohan who switched to Alpine at the start of the season. Jack is in his debut season and has impressed everyone with his raw pace. He's starting to mature and has picked up a couple of wins as well. For a team like Red Bull known for giving young talent a chance, this should have been the perfect opportunity. Putting raw talent alongside Tsunoda would have been a risk, but that's the kind of risk Red Bull tends to take in F1.

Giving Jack Doohan a shot would not have been a bad proposition by any means, because if that had worked, Red Bull would have unearthed another strong talent. Nyck de Vries is a very 'un-Red Bull' pick in a way. The driver is mature, experienced, not young, and while he can give the team some strong consistent results, he's not your next superstar.

While it's fair to say that a driver like Nyck de Vries deserves a shot in F1, Red Bull seems to have made a mistake by selecting him for AlphaTauri.