When Mercedes’ Formula E champion de Vries rocked up in the Monza paddock on Friday no one could have predicted the rollercoaster weekend that would lie ahead of him.
As part of his Mercedes duties, de Vries was made available to its partner teams for a reserve role and took the wheel of Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin in first practice.
He had been praised by Vettel and the team for his feedback but was set to spend the rest of the weekend all but twiddling his thumbs, make the odd media and VIP appearance and then watch Sunday’s race alongside Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, as he and fellow reserve Stoffel Vandoorne often do.
But, speaking to the media after his FP1 outing, the conversation focused more on the Dutchman’s future than about his practice session.
“I thought we were going to talk about the FP1 session, you are all very aggressive,” he said when questions went straight into his 2023 plans.
He added that F1’s silly season has been “more volatile than cryptocurrency”, perhaps foreshadowing what would come to pass later that weekend.
When on Saturday morning news arrived that Williams driver Alex Albon had been struck by appendicitis, de Vries was the obvious choice to replace him at the Mercedes-powered team. Not only had de Vries just managed to familiarise himself with driving an F1 car at Monza, but he had also completed an FP1 with the Grove team in Barcelona.
De Vries was called by Mercedes’ James Vowles to inform him of the news just 90 minutes before FP3 while he was sipping coffee in the Paddock Club as part of his other obligations.
Arriving in the Williams garage, the team was in a rush to prepare him for his only practice session in the car ahead of qualifying, becoming the first driver since Harald Ertl in 1978 to compete for two different teams during a grand prix weekend.
“The team had to quickly adjust a lot of things, like my seat and the pedal positions,” he explained. “In FP3, you really only have two runs because you only have two sets of tyres. There’s no room for long runs, you immediately have to push before qualifying.”
Nyck de Vries, Williams FW44
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Recalling Saturday’s events, Williams team boss Jost Capito told Autosport: “He came in with a big smile, even though he knew that it would be extremely hard.
“He knows the team and the team did everything to support him to be successful. We believe in him, we knew what he could do.”
But, while the low drag Williams was a…
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