Ever since his heroics at the 2022 Italian GP, Nyck de Vries became an instant hot property in F1. He came in as a replacement for Alex Albon, who was down with appendicitis surgery. In his one-off race, the Dutchman scored points in a Williams car that was struggling a lot. The fact that their regular driver, Nicholas Latifi, had failed to score any points until then made Nyck’s achievement all the more impressive. That is the kind of reputation he carried when he signed with AlphaTauri. However, since then, he is facing a tough time. So much so that reports about Red Bull’s Helmut Marko delivering him an ultimatum became viral. A former F1 driver has now come to the rookie’s rescue, urging Marko to have patience with his driver.

We are already five races into the season and de Vries has failed to score any points. To make matters worse, he has already a couple of crashes, which, for an arguably cash-strapped team like AlphaTauri, is not ideal. On top of it, the car is slow and it does not look like Nyck is anywhere near to scoring points anytime soon. Even his relatively experienced teammate Yuki Tsunoda has only managed 2 points until now.

Helmut Marko asked to have patience with Nyck de Vries

Had it not been for the tragic floods in Emilia Romagna, F1 would have kicked off its Europe leg of fixtures today. These are the circuits Nyck is more familiar with owing to his F2 experience. Among the 5 races until now, he was familiar with only 2 circuits- Bahrain and Baku. That is perhaps part of the reason why he hasn’t looked comfortable.

Citing this reason, Juan Pablo Montoya, in his recent interview with Motorsport.com, said, “It’s not easy, but I think he needs a little more time. If we go to Europe in a bit and also go back to circuits he already knows, I think he will perform better.” [Translated using Google]

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“The start of the season is difficult for him, even if you look purely at the schedule, because he has come to all new tracks. Once he gets back on familiar ground, I think things will get better.”

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Further in the interview, Montoya also talked about Fernando Alonso‘s meteoric rise. Surprisingly, he did not make too much of it as he felt that the Spaniard hasn’t changed at all.

Montoya thinks Fernando Alonso hasn’t changed at all

From experts to fans, everyone questioned Alonso’s decision when he decided to switch from Alpine to Aston Martin. Going by the 4 podium finishes until now, all doubts have disappeared. Many now even laud his attitude and his newfound hunger to perform on the tarmac. Montoya, however, feels that Alonso’s driving style hasn’t changed.

“Well, it’s funny,” he said. “Everyone talks about that nowadays, but I think Fernando still drives exactly the same as he did in years past. Only he has a much better car now, of course, that’s just the whole difference. What I have to say and what he really does very well is that he manages to get everyone in the team behind him, again at Aston Martin”

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Do you think Helmut Marko will give de Vries a few more chances before making a decision? Or has the taskmaster made up his mind already?