Nyck De Vries: Losing my seat to Daniel Ricciardo 'hurts'

Nyck De Vries has acknowledged it's been painful to lose his AlphaTauri seat to F1 veteran Daniel Ricciardo.

De Vries was ousted from his AlphaTauri seat by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko on Tuesday, just 10 races into his debut season, where he struggled to match his teammate Yuki Tsunoda's performance.

AlphaTauri decided to bring in Red Bull's third driver, Ricciardo, to replace the Dutchman. The Australian was loaned to the Faenza team after impressing his parent team during a Pirelli test in Silverstone.

Since his dismissal, De Vries had remained silent, but on Wednesday, eight days after the incident, he finally broke his silence on social media with a statement addressing the loss of his F1 drive.

He expressed gratitude towards Red Bull and AlphaTauri for providing him with the opportunity in Formula 1, while also sharing his disappointment at his stint lasting less than half a season.

"A short note from me... After recent events, I decided to take some time for myself away from social media, which I will continue to do," De Vries wrote on Instagram.

"I would like to thank Red Bull and Scuderia AlphaTauri for the opportunity to live my dream. Of course, it hurts that the F1 chance I dreamed of for so long ended prematurely.

"But life is not a destination, it's a journey, and sometimes you have to take the hard road to get where you want to be.

"I am grateful for our privileged lives, proud of our journey and my family. This is just another experience; we move on and look forward to the next chapter.

"Thank you to everyone for your kind and encouraging messages in the past week. It's been heart-warming to feel your support."