Nyck de Vries thinks AlphaTauri needs bad luck from teams before AlphaTauri to score points at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Dutchman says this in a press release from his team. The 28-year-old sees progress, but also knows that more is needed to become really competitive and fight for points on his own.
“Baku will be my very first Sprint weekend and it will be very challenging with only one hour of free practice before qualifying,” says De Vries, who took three second places in Formula 2 in Baku. “We are all excited to get back to racing after this long break. The circuit is quite unique in that overtaking, mostly on street circuits, is very challenging, but the extremely long straight offers opportunities.’
De Vries therefore hopes that there will be something to cheer about after this weekend. However, he is not sure. “I feel we are making progress, but the midfield is still very tight. It is quite a challenge to fight for points, because in a normal race the top ten is firmly occupied. We need to make sure we are ready to capitalize on any mistakes made by those who would normally be in the top ten.”
On its own, AlphaTauri is not yet able to seriously participate in the forefront of midfield. “Although I see signs of progress, Baku demands a lot of straight-line speed and so far our straight-line speed has not been as competitive. Let’s wait and see how it turns out’, De Vries is not yet completely confident about a good result in Azerbaijan.
Tsunoda pins hopes on AlphaTauri updates
Yuki Tsunoda agrees that AlphaTauri still leaves something to be desired in terms of top speed. “We do have some updates, including for the rear wing to apply the low downforce setting for this track,” explains the Japanese. That should help and hopefully the standard set-up of the car will already suit the track in Azerbaijan. I’m approaching this weekend optimistically as usual and looking forward to being back in the car after a long break.’
