You’d have expected the return of Daniel Ricciardo to the sport as a clean sweep in terms of the fans’ approval. That being said, nothing could’ve been farther away from the truth. While many fans are rejoicing at the prospect of seeing the Honey Badger make a deserving comeback, the joy has been marred by the treatment dished out to rookie, Nyck de Vries. While de Vries certainly failed to live up to expectations at AlphaTauri, his sacking after just 10 months into his F1 career hasn’t gone down too well with the fans.

At the end of the day, de Vries’ misery was the happiness of Ricciardo. But while all the eyes will be on Ricciardo from Hungary onwards, Red Bull taskmaster and the man responsible for this decision, Helmut Marko has decided to clear the air surrounding this seemingly premature call.

Helmut Marko makes Daniel Ricciardo clarification

Marko is known for his short-tempered shenanigans at the helm of the driver program at the Milton-Keynes-based outfit. That being said, even though on the outside de Vries’ sacking may look harsh, Marko has tried to foot a compelling argument for it.

De Telegraaf quoted Marko as saying, “He [de Vries] is 28 years old, has a lot of experience, and has also been able to gain a lot of knowledge as a test driver in various Formula 1 cars. You can’t compare him to a young rookie in my eyes. At the end of April in Baku, he started the weekend well and I thought he would perform better, but then he crashed again. Unfortunately, he never drove a super lap that surprised us.” [translated via Google Translate]

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Everything said and done, by de Vries’ own appraisal, he would be fuming at this decision.

Nyck de Vries categorizes himself alongside Lando Norris and Alex Albon

Alex Albon and Lando Norris are currently regarded as two future world champions in waiting. And it wasn’t long back when Red Bull reject, Nyck de Vries considered himself at par, if not better than this duo.

During his triumphant 2019 F2 season, de Vries was quoted as saying, “I do not want to be arrogant at all, but Norris and Albon were in my eyes really no better than me. Norris won only one race, Albon won four and I won three.”

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Where did it all go wrong for Nyck de Vries?