Helmut Marko felt no reason to give Nyck de Vries any more time to prove he could cut it in Formula 1.
The Dutch racer's time with AlphaTauri lasted for just 10 races before he was axed after the British Grand Prix. In his place, Daniel Ricciardo will make a return to the grid earlier than expected.
The decision was taken following a tyre test the Aussie took part in at Silverstone on Tuesday. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was present and kept adviser Marko apprised of the 34-year-old's progress on-track.
Just hours later, De Vries' sacking had been confirmed, as had Ricciardo's impending return to F1 action. He will race at the final two races before the summer shutdown and the other 10 to come between then and the end of this season.
Some feel De Vries should have been given more time to adjust – even if it was just the two races to come between now and the mid-season break. However, in typically blunt style, Marko explained why that course of action was not taken.
"We contracted Nyck because he performed great at Monza last year," he told De Telegraaf. "We expected him to be at least equal to his team-mate Tsunoda this year, but that was not the case. Actually, he was always three tenths slower than Yuki.
"We saw no improvement. We had to do something. Why wait, and what do two more races matter if you don't see any improvement? Nyck is a very nice guy, but the speed just wasn't there."
Tsunoda is in his third year with the team, having been given extra time to prove himself after a difficult start to his own F1 career. However, Marko feels the situations are not comparable given De Vries is 28 and is already a champion in Formula 2 and Formula E.
The Austrian added: "He is 28, has a lot of experience and has also been able to gain a lot of knowledge as a test driver in multiple Formula 1 cars. You can't compare him to a young rookie, in my opinion.
"At the end of April in Baku, he started the weekend well and I thought he would perform better, but then he crashed again. Unfortunately, he didn't do one super lap that really amazed us."
Despite the failure of Marko's De Vries gamble, AlphaTauri have again elected for an older driver rather than their traditional policy of promoting younger racers. Ricciardo, 34, will race with them until the end of this season, at which point the longer-term situation will be addressed.
Marko said: "Ricciardo's lap times were competitive during the tyre test, on three different tyre sets. If Ricciardo hadn't had the speed, we would have needed to consider something else.
"But AlphaTauri is not in a good position right now and is last in the constructors' standings, so we had to do something to change that. That often happens after a driver change and Ricciardo brings new energy to the team."
