24/02/2023
NEWS STORY
Franz Tost admits that from the moment of his arrival at AlphaTauri, Nyck de Vries has made an impact.
Having made a sensational F1 debut when he replaced Alex Albon at Monza, with Mercedes having ruled out a future drive for the Dutch youngster, AlphaTauri was quick to snap him up as a replacement for Pierre Gasly.
Speaking as pre-season testing gets underway, and De Vries is on the verge of making his debut with the team, Tost revealed that as early as last year's post-season test it was clear that signing the Dutchman was the right move.
"Our engineers got good technical feedback from his side, especially after the Abu Dhabi test where he did a lot of laps, and where he, fortunately, complained a lot about the car," Tost told reporters in Bahrain.
"This was a wake-up call for the engineers," he added. "He had a long to-do list. I liked it! It was so funny, because the engineers wanted to argue that our solutions are good, and I always said to them, 'Look where we are in the Constructors' Championship.'
"He's doing a really good job," he continued. "He is very experienced, you can see and feel that he is 28 years old, and that he won a lot of races and championships.
"I think that he will be able to adapt to F1 immediately. I expect him to perform well from the first qualifying onwards.
"Of course, always when a new driver is coming, if it's not a young driver coming from a lower series, he brings in some input, some technical ideas. And with Nyck we were lucky that last year he was in contact with many teams and many cars.
"His professional attitude, his discipline, his feedback also regarding the simulator. Ideas for changing working methods. And I expect a lot of input also after this test here from his side.
"He should not feel like a rookie. Because Nyck is, as I mentioned before, very experienced. He won races in every category, he won championships. And he is a really good asset for us."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Bahrain, here.