A furious Nyck de Vries has reportedly broken his silence after being dumped by Alpha Tauri team owner Red Bull.
The energy drink company's former multiple champion Sebastian Vettel at the weekend admitted ousting the rookie Dutchman after just ten races was "brutal".
And de Vries, a former Formula E and Formula 2 champion, is apparently angry about the decision, telling Italian media he was "completely caught off guard" by Dr Helmut Marko's call.
Rumours of de Vries' likely mid-season demise, however, have been circulating for weeks - but he has been saying at grands prix that he deliberately tuned out the media reports.
That's because, according the 28-year-old, he actually signed a multi-year contract "and was promised the second Red Bull seat in 2025".
But while "caught off guard" by last week's news, de Vries admits at the same time that it's "not surprising" after Red Bull "stole the eighth title from Lewis Hamilton".
Whilst not directly attributed to a specific Italian media source, de Vries' supposed comments were published by the Austrian newspaper Kurier.
