#idk what's going on in the water with american caricature logan sargeant but he isn't getting shown the boot

[cobraonthecob]

apologies to all my followers who do not know what f1 is. this fucking rich man's sport has grabbed my brain and is not willing to let go

I am. several months late but my thoughts have been marinating this so um. here we go. a formula 1 post about Nyck De Vries because i really think he deserves a lot better but i understand this sport is cutthroat and red bull happily tosses drivers if they see them as underperforming, which i get. if you underperform, you get the chopping block.

That being said...Nyck being dropped ten races into a season feels like a punch to the face, especially after m/zepin, who at least got a season in (no surprise, money talks big in this rich man's sport, especially if your russian oligarch father sponsors the team) despite posting in his instagram story a video of him groping a woman on his public account. classless.

I will say, Nyck did start off the season coming off as highly arrogant, not wanting to be called a rookie because he is 28 and has been test driving for years (okay fair, he could just be referred to as 'new to officially f1 racing' but that's too long), and thought he was going to be the team lead because of that experience. I do think that was the worst thing he did; was to try and brand himself as not a rookie and thinking he was team lead over Yuki Tsunoda, who has been at alphatauri for much longer than he has. In the eyes of fans, this damned him (seriously, why did no one at PR try to stop him from thinking he - the new guy - would be team lead), and his racing results were lacking.

I honestly think that they should have waited out the entire season to judge him, and that alphatauri had no business tossing Nyck for underperforming in the worst car on the grid. I think that Perspective on youtube has some good points in this video about nyck, and I can't remember at the moment if it was perspective or another youtuber who talked about Nyck in a respectful way, but one stated that in their opinion, drivers should at least have two seasons to be properly judged on their performance. Given how cutthroat redbull is, I say one is enough of a judgement, since they seem to be waiting or searching for the next driver that can measure up to max.

I also do think that Nyck got screwed over by transferring from williams to alpha tauri, instead of signing onto alphatauri, but i wonder if the only reason why alphatauri wanted him specifically was because he's only three inches taller than yuki and they wanted to give yuki preference on the car, rather than say, designing the car around logan or oscar (let's just pretend that these three new drivers are all up for grabs, i don't know how or who gets which driver and i'm not part of that world), who are much taller. though, i'll admit, that thought kind of gets thrown out the door once alpha tauri decided to take on daniel ricciardo and later liam lawson, both of whom are quite tall (and is something mentioned in f1's analysis about alpha tauri)

There's also Nyck being very much hyped over his first race in F1, when he had to stand-in for Alex Albon (who is 6'1, keep that in mind), managed to score P9 in his first official F1 race, and it's not an easy feat for someone who is a test driver, as he couldn't get out of the car at the end of the race, as he stated he was unable to lift his arms. It's one thing if he had just managed to stay in the race, but to be able to score P9 while being pushed to his physical limit. Yes, williams may have the advantage of being perfect for monza, but to manage to climb P9 in a car at the bottom in the constructors' championship and it's not a car that suits you - the original driver being 7 inches taller - I'd say that's pretty impressive to pull off.

and I think that the hype probably put a massive weight on his shoulders. He had so many expectations for himself, the team had expectations for him, and the fans had expectations, and then a series of unfortunate events of getting a car that is fighting to be the worst on the grid and unfortunate incidents leads to him being shown the door.

I think Nyck would've thrived a lot better if he remained at a team whose car he would at least be familiar with, and at a team that would not toss him to the side for underperforming. But unfortunately, time marches on, and I can only wish Nyck the best in life, and that this becomes a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to sign onto red bull/alphatauri.

The overall conclusion is that he deserved a better team and that I can only hope anyone who is similar to him (i.e. been in motorsport for so long that your F1 debut is when you're over the age of 23 and not having a rich parent to buy + protect your place on the team) will learn from the errors Nyck made (the arrogance, specifically).