Nyck de Vries replaces Alex Albon in Monza: ‘Was quite nervous’ | formula 1

The news came the day after De Vries had already played for another team in Monza. The 27-year-old Dutchman, under contract with Mercedes, drove the first free practice in Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin. After his performance in that car, he already spoke clearly about his ambitions. “I believe I wouldn’t look out of place on this grid and that I deserve a chance,” he said.

,,I was at the paddock club this morning and received a call that I had to come to Mercedes as soon as possible,” De Vries told Viaplay about the course of events this Saturday. ,,I was sent there. It was still a bit uncertain whether I could actually race, but at least I had to prepare for VT3.During the briefing I was finally told but because I had to start preparing immediately, I haven’t really been able to put it into perspective yet.I must confess that I was also quite nervous and couldn’t eat at all because of the crowds.”

Watch how De Vries blocked for a while in Q2

,,I’m not completely satisfied with the qualifying,’ continues De Vries, despite his creditable performance. At the end of the second part of qualifying, he missed a corner, making an improvement impossible. ,,We missed a few things here and there, there was even more potential. We had made some changes at the start of Q2 that I’m not quite sure happy and later I couldn’t quite put it together. In the last run I pressed something on the handlebars and the brake balance went back 1.5%. I lost the rear in turn 4 because of that, but in the end we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves and we can be happy with this result.”

The former world champion in Formula 2 and Formula E has the podium in Monza that he dreams so fervently. “Every young driver dreams of Formula 1 and I would be lying if I said that it doesn’t apply to me,” he emphasized yesterday.

So at least that dream is now coming true. And maybe his chance will come at the perfect time, now silly season is in full swing. That term is used in Formula 1 for the period of the year when there is uncertainty about what the starting grid of a year later will look like.

The first meters of De Vries in VT3

There is currently a lot of speculation about the musical chairs among the teams and De Vries’ name regularly appears in those speculations. “People talk, we all talk,” he said. ,,But I am not the one who determines the driver line-up of the teams. Time will tell if I’ll be there next year.”

Unlucky bird Albon, who is struggling with acute appendicitis, will undergo surgery later today.