Nyck de Vries ahead Saudi Arabian GP - Get it done 15.03.2023: STC SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX Jeddah Corniche Circuit 17-19 March 2023 Nyck de Vries “It felt great to finally really start our season and campaign together in Bahrain. It’s been a long lead up to that moment and ultimately, we are racer

STC SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX
Jeddah Corniche Circuit
17-19 March 2023



    
Nyck de Vries



“It felt great to finally really start our season and campaign together in Bahrain. It’s been a long lead up to that moment and ultimately, we are racers, we want to go out there and compete. I’m very happy that we have the first one out of the way and that we’re basically getting into the race rhythm.
 


Some parts of my first full F1 weekend were a little bit busier than I’d been used to, but in all honesty, it was all well-organised and managed. In the end, in any professional racing series, they operate fairly similarly.



Obviously, Formula 1 is a much bigger platform, but regarding the weekend itself, there were no major surprises. Of course, there is a little bit more media work and other activities but ultimately, what happens on track is still the most important.
 


I think there is no hiding that we’re not exactly where we want to be in terms of performance. There is still a lot of work to be done. We feel like we need to close the gap even more in low-speed corners and Bahrain has a lot of those so we hope that Saudi will suit our package a little bit better.


Ultimately, the midfield is so extremely close and fighting for points is going to be a tough battle because you have at least four top teams in front which are already taking eight positions. It’s going to be a challenge, but we’ve just got to make sure we don’t leave anything unturned so that we can capitalise on potential opportunities.
 


Tyre degradation was an important factor in the first race, but I think Bahrain is a strong outlier when it comes to degradation. The tarmac is probably the oldest of the calendar, so I’m very confident that in Saudi it will be a different story, but we will have to wait and see whether that works in our favour. I think we were positively surprised by our race performance in Bahrain.



We were clearly in the mix but again, that’s only one weekend. I think we need to do more races to get a bigger picture before we can draw conclusions. Doing a day’s testing for Pirelli at Sakhir after the Grand Prix was useful. All the mileage is very welcome, especially at this time of the year. Therefore, it was definitely valuable for us to get it done.
 


As for Saudi, I attended the race last year, but I’ve never driven the Jeddah track, even though I’ve driven it quite a lot on the simulator, most recently last week. It seems very cool: quick and tricky. I’m honestly very much looking forward to the challenge, learning a new track and being back out racing.”

    


- Fabiana Valenti, photo Red Bull