In the coming Formula 1 season, Nyck de Vries will be allowed to play as a regular driver for the first time. The Dutchman replaces Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri. At the Mexican Grand Prix, the 27-year-old will apparently initially be driving a Mercedes.
Nyck de Vries will contest the first free practice session in Mexico for Mercedes, according to F1 reporters Chris Medland reported on Wednesday evening. There he will sit in place of regular driver George Russell.
In 2022, de Vries was already allowed to complete three Friday sessions: the Dutchman has already sat in a car for Mercedes and also drove in the Williams and Aston Martin.
At the Italian Grand Prix, he also made his debut in the premier class in the Williams after Alexander Albon fell ill for a short time – he made an appearance that probably also got him his regular driver contract with AlphaTauri. In qualifying, he immediately outperformed Williams driver Nicholas Latifi and reached Q2. He finished the race in ninth place and thus secured two points for the racing team.
At Williams and Mercedes they rave about Nyck de Vries
In recent years, Nyck de Vries has mainly been in Formula E for Mercedes. After eleventh place in 2019/20, he was crowned world champion a season later. He had also previously won the World Championship in Formula 2 in 2019.
At Mercedes, the qualities of Nyck de Vries have been appreciated for some time. Technical director Mike Elliott was therefore also sad that the pilot would work for the competition in the future: “I think it’s a shame for us as a team that he’s going somewhere else, but at the same time I’m very happy for him, really very much. He has these Got a chance and it’s nice to see a driver with the talent that he has get that chance.”
His colleagues at Williams also raved after the brief assignment in Italy. “His feedback after just a few laps on what he wanted from the car and his ideas on how to achieve it was really impressive. He drove really well but he also knows how to work with the whole team and a good result achieved,” said Dave Robson, director of vehicle performance at Williams.