NYCK de Vries spoke on Wednesday of his hurt at losing his AlphaTauri Formula One seat to Australian Daniel Ricciardo after only 10 races and before he got a chance to race at his home Dutch Grand Prix.
The 28-year-old was dropped by the Red Bull-owned team last week and replaced by eight-time grand prix winner Ricciardo, 34, who had been filling a reserve role since leaving McLaren at the end of last year.
“Of course, it hurts that the F1 chance I dreamed of for so long ended prematurely,” de Vries wrote on Instagram in his first public comment on the dismissal.
“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.”
The comments came a day after Red Bull team boss Christian Horner provided more details of the decision to bring back former Red Bull racer Ricciardo ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.
“There was a high expectation of him (de Vries) because whilst inexperienced in Formula One he’s obviously a very experienced driver,” said Horner of the 2021 Formula E champion and 2019 F2 champion.
