Nyck de Vries has broken his silence since being dropped from AlphaTauri, admitting that losing his Formula 1 seat “hurts” but saying he is in a privileged position to move onto a new challenge.
Red Bull made the decision to replace de Vries after just 10 races of his rookie season in order to evaluate Daniel Ricciardo, with Christian Horner insisting it is due to the Australian’s performance behind the wheel during the Pirelli tire test at Silverstone. De Vries had not spoken publicly since the decision but took to social media to provide an update ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
“A short note from me,” he wrote on Instagram. “After recent events, I decided to take some time for myself away from social media, which I will continue to do.
“I would like to thank Red Bull and Scuderia AlphaTauri for the opportunity to live my dream. Of course it hurts that the F1 chance I dreamed of for so long ended prematurely. But life is not a destination, it’s a journey, and sometimes you have to take the hard road to get where you want to be.
“I am grateful for our privileged lives, proud of our journey and my family. This is just another experience; we move on and look forward to the next chapter. Thank you to everyone for your kind and encouraging messages in the past week. It’s been heart-warming to feel your support.
“PS: I received some interesting articles about things I’ve said in the last week. For clarity, I haven’t spoken to any media and for the time being I’ll enjoy some me time. Wishing you all a nice summer.”
After losing his AlphaTauri drive, de Vries currently has two points from 11 starts in F1, having finished ninth on his debut for Williams in Monza last year. AlphaTauri has picked up two points in total so far this season, courtesy of a pair of 10th-place finishes from Yuki Tsunoda.
