Sebastian Vettel disappointed by ‘brutal’ sacking of Nyck de Vries at Red Bull sister team AlphaTauri

Sebastian Vettel has criticised former team Red Bull for the decision to sack Nyck de Vries at sister outfit AlphaTauri.

It was a tough campaign for De Vries, as he failed to score a point and his best finish was 12th in Monaco.

Still, Vettel was critical of the decision to pull the plug on the Dutchman.

“It’s brutal.”

Vettel pointed to De Vries’ earlier achievements in Formula 2 – he won the title in 2019 – and feels people should focus on that rather than his short-lived spell in the AlphaTauri.

“Maybe those five, 10 races whatever didn’t go according to how good they could have been,” four-time F1 world champion Vettel said. “We don’t know why, first of all from the outside and second he is still a very good driver.

“I have to also sympathise with the fact that you know, it’s very harsh for him and I hope that people don’t [just] see that.

“He won the F2 championship, he won international championships so he’s well recognised and I hope that this doesn’t put a dent in his confidence.

“That’s why people shouldn’t look at [only his AlphaTauri career] because people tend to do that and that’s not right.”

The season resumes on July 23 with the Hungarian Grand Prix.