De Vries crashed in Friday qualifying for last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, before crashing into the wall at Turn 5, causing his left front toe-link to bend and retire.

The 2020/21 Formula E champion is still chasing his maiden points, with rookie Logan Sargent the only driver yet to score as a tight midfield battle for 2023 affords him a top-10 finish Opportunity.

Team boss Tost defended the Dutchman and compared him to Faenza’s former schoolmate Sebastian Vettel, who also had a tendency to damage his car in his rookie days before becoming a major force .

“As I always say, there is a learning process and a breakdown period,” Tost said in Baku on Saturday. “Because drivers don’t know the limit if they don’t crash.

“That’s the trust you have to give them, otherwise it doesn’t work.

“And there’s no driver who doesn’t crash. I remember Sebastian most often coming back on the first lap with no nose in the first race. It’s part of the race.”

Nyck de Vries, AlphaTauri

Photography: Red Bull Content Pool

Baku’s improved sprint format with just one 60-minute practice session before qualifying proved the rookie’s extra hurdle, which Tost called “problematic”.

“As I always say, if a rookie is going to be in Formula 1, he needs at least three years to understand what’s going on here.

“Now look at this weekend format in Baku. We have free practice and then you go into qualifying and for the young drivers and newbies it’s a matter of getting the maximum off the track and tires in qualifying, This is really a difficult exercise.

“(In qualifying) it was very clear what happened to Nick. He braked a bit late because he expected that there might be more grip. Then he lost the car.”

A disappointed de Vries described his retirement in Baku as a “stupid mistake” after he got stuck in traffic behind Alfa Romeo Zhou Guanyu.

“I’m disappointed in myself,” he told Viaplay. “It was a very stupid mistake and it was entirely my responsibility. I am very disappointed in it.

“The wall was very close, I just got a little too close and that was enough. I probably got impatient after the week because I was stuck there.

“But that doesn’t mean everything is right, I still made mistakes and that shouldn’t have happened.”