Helmut Marko sees Nyck de Vries as the team leader at AlphaTauri ahead of Tsunoda

We know it, Helmut Marko never minces his words. If recently, his words have been very complimentary towards Nyck de Vries, who has signed with AlphaTauri next year to replace Pierre Gasly, they indirectly target Yuki Tsunoda.

If he is currently 27 years old, the Dutchman will have celebrated his 28th birthday when he joins Red Bull’s sister team in 2023. Nowadays, it is quite rare to see drivers of this age making their debut in Formula 1. But for Helmut Marko, his maturity is a strength. Nyck may no longer be the youngest, but he has gained a lot of experience. He had to work very hard to come back after that period with McLaren, and it shows that he is very determined. The fact that he had to fight after a kind of break in his career means that he can compete, and that is an important attribute for us, said the sports director of the Austrian team to the Dutch edition of Motorsport.com.

“A maturity that Yuki Tsunoda, 22 years old, the youngest driver on the grid, has not yet shown, is undoubtedly one of the most impulsive ones. His outbursts on the radio, directed at his engineers, annoy more than one. This weekend in Japan, the Kanagawa native violently lashed out at his team during qualifying, when he was asked to work on his brakes.”

Contrary to Nyck de Vries, who impressed Helmut Marko with his comments when he got behind the wheel of Sebastian Vettel’s car during the first free practice session in Monza, I was very impressed with the onboard radio when he entered the car. I listened to the radio and the comments he made were very good, said the Austrian.

Then came the race in Monza, Nyck de Vries stepping in at short notice to replace Alex Albon at Williams. The rest, we already know: great mastery throughout the race to finish in 9th position and score his first points in F1. « Before this race, Nyck was not on our initial list, or let’s say he wasn’t in top position. But what we saw from him in Monza changed things. He entered the game and “delivered the goods” right away. The pressure was high, but he didn’t make any mistakes. »

Thanks to these abilities, Helmut Marko has high expectations for Nyck de Vries in 2023. He already sees him as the team leader ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who will start his third season at AlphaTauri. Yuki is still young and does not have that technical experience, so Nyck can lead the team. We will see how it goes in training next year, but judging by his experience and personality, Nyck should be the team leader. Hopefully, the Dutchman has a good resistance to the hierarchical pressure…