Nyck de Vries Disaster Forces Him To Miss Saudi Arabian FP3

Crisis strikes AlphaTauri, now we hope they can get de Vries' car ready for qualifying later today.

Nyck de Vries looked like he was going to hit the ground running after such a successful beginning at the Italian Grand Prix last year. But after just a single race, the Dutch driver has shown very little performance behind the wheel of the AlphaTauri. And now, he's been forced to sit out of FP3 of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as he's been forced to take a replacement PU.

The Italian F1 team posted the disappointing news to their Twitter account saying:

"unfortunately, we’ve detected an issue on @nyckdevries’ car and we are now changing his PU. as a result, he won’t be participating in FP3." [sic]

unfortunately, we’ve detected an issue on @nyckdevries’ car and we are now changing his PU.

as a result, he won’t be participating in FP3 pic.twitter.com/dJ8Rr7kvIs

— Visa Cash App RB F1 Team (@visacashapprb) March 18, 2023

Fans were quick to respond, with several asking if he'll have the car ready for qualifying later today:

"Will he be ready for quali? hoping it goes smoothly for all the team fixing it!" [sic] 

"Better finding out now and not in the race!" a follower says optimistically.

"Sh*t show," a third simply writes.

PU replacements can be carried out in as little as 3 hours, so the team will be cutting it close to qualifying which starts in just over three hours from the time of writing this. 

We'll be crossing our fingers for de Vries as we continue to analyse FP3.