De Vries 'not satisfied' with lacklustre Saudi Arabian GP showing

Harry Smith
Friday 24 March 2023 10:40 - Updated: 11:24

AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries has voiced his frustrations with his performance at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The 28-year-old started 18th at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit following a disappointing qualifying performance.

De Vries struggled to move forward during the 50-lap event, despite picking up a couple of positions on the opening lap and couldn't match the pace of his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who lost his place in the points to Haas' Kevin Magnussen in the closing stages.

The Dutchman has endured a difficult start to life at AlphaTauri following his impressive stand-in performance for Williams last season, no doubt hampered by the AT04's lack of performance.

AlphaTauri remains pointless after two rounds of the 2023 season, although the team did show some unexpected pace in Tsunoda's fight with Magnussen.

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De Vries: 'Not satisfied'

"I'm personally not satisfied with my own job at the start of the race, nor the Safety Car restart," said de Vries.

"I think I was not attacking enough and a bit too conservative. It was hard for me to judge the balance between managing the tyres and obviously pushing."

De Vries found himself frustrated with the congested nature of the midfield in Jeddah.

"I was just too conservative and then you lose one position, you're a little bit on the back foot and then you're stuck in a DRS train and find yourself stuck in traffic.

"You need to wait a long time before the train breaks up and then you can start to race and attack, and I think I just didn't do a good enough job there."

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