Despite a pointless start to the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship for Nyck de Vries, Jody Egginton believes his feedback and development promise are already helping Scuderia AlphaTauri improve their AT04 car.
The Dutchman joined AlphaTauri to replace BWT Alpine F1 Team bound Pierre Gasly after leaving his role as test and reserve driver with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. De Vries made his Formula 1 race debut in the 2022 Italian Grand Prix for Williams Racing as a stand-in for an unwell Alexander Albon and secured a ninth-place finish, the equal best result for the team across last season.
De Vries is one of only two drivers yet to score points in 2023 alongside Williams’ Logan Sargeant, but despite this, Egginton, the Technical Director at AlphaTauri, says he has been contributing ideas on how to bring improvements to the car as they bid to improve on their ninth place standing in the Constructors’ Championship.
Egginton says it is important to remember that de Vries had only one race in Formula 1 before joining AlphaTauri in 2023, but his technical knowledge has been vital and his experience of racing in other formulae has helped him and therefore aided the team as well.
“Nyck has got a lot of experience,” said Egginton to Motorsport.com. “He’s only done one race in Formula 1 before joining us, but he’s got an awful lot of experience in other formulas and also experience testing and driving other people’s F1 cars.
“And his feedback’s good. He’s forming a clear picture of what he wants from the car as he learns the car. And he’s helping us move the development forward, so it’s a big contribution already together with Yuki [Tsunoda].”
Egginton is pleased that the feedback given by both de Vries and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda is similar as it helps them develop the car in a way that is likely to benefit both drivers.
“Both of the drivers have been quite clear on what the car is doing and what they want from it, and they’re reasonably well aligned as well,” added Egginton. “That makes our development process slightly easier as we’ve got pretty common targets both sides of the garage.
“With this update we’ve bought to the track, both of them have experienced it and both of them have got similar feedback. On top of all the data we gather that’s good as well because it means they’re both seeing the benefit from it. So far, so good in that respect.”