Nyck de Vries says AlphaTauri can be encouraged by its performance during Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix after making his full-season debut for the team.
AlphaTauri cut a low-key figure during pre-season testing while in qualifying de Vries was eliminated in Q1, though team-mate Yuki Tsunoda went on to make Q2.
AlphaTauri was firmly in the thick of the lower midfield action in Bahrain, with Tsunoda only narrowly missing out on the top 10 to Williams’ Alex Albon.
De Vries classified in 14th position and was keen to draw on the positives from AlphaTauri’s Bahrain performance.
“What was important to me is that we were able to fight in the midfield and we were certainly up there in terms of pace,” said De Vries. “And that was encouraging. It’s a shame we missed out on the VSC pitstop at the end, but that’s the decision we make and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
“I don’t think points were realistic. But we could have definitely fought for P12. However, we learned from that and it was overall a positive day.”
On the takeaways from Bahrain de Vries said that “I wouldn’t say that we were surprised but we certainly looked competitive in the midfield.
“And I think that was important to us and those are positives we take away to the next weekend.”
De Vries is optimistic that Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah circuit, location for next weekend’s second round, could be more favourable for AlphaTauri’s AT04.
“According to our current understanding, it seems like it will maybe suit our package a little bit more,” he said.
“But again, I think this is a little early to take conclusions on. So we’ll take a step at a time. But we won’t sit still in the meantime.”
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