Nyck de Vries doesn't have to fear for his spot in Formula 1 after the weekend in Monaco, at least for now. Helmut Marko was pleased with the performance of the AlphaTauri driver in the streets of Monte Carlo, but the Red Bull Racing advisor still expects more from the Dutchman. Additionally, Marko is also critical of the AlphaTauri team. The Austrian believes that the braking issues that Yuki Tsunoda struggled with should be resolved once and for all.
De Vries managed to finish ahead of his teammate for the first time this weekend. Tsunoda did experience an issue during the Grand Prix, but that doesn't diminish Marko's satisfaction with De Vries' performance. "This has undoubtedly been his best weekend for AlphaTauri," the Red Bull advisor admits to Motorsport.com. "Yuki was also very good until he once again encountered braking problems towards the end of the race. The team really needs to address this issue, as they have had braking problems quite often."
Marko noticed that De Vries was already quite competitive in Monaco, starting from Saturday. "Nyck was much closer to Yuki this past weekend than before. That's what I want to see from him." However, the performance of the Dutch driver still doesn't fully satisfy him. "Of course, we want to see more from him. The idea was to bring someone into the team who already had experience and could push Yuki hard. That hasn't really happened yet, and that's the most important thing."
Last weekend's performance is perfectly timed for De Vries. There were rumors circulating that his seat could potentially go to someone else if he didn't improve in three races. "There is never a deadline. We simply assess performance continuously. If we need to take action, we will take action." Marko does conclude with some reassuring words for the AlphaTauri driver: "For now, we won't do anything."