Nyck de Vries’ impressive performance on his Formula 1 debut in the Italian Grand Prix convinced AlphaTauri to give him a full-time drive next year.
Williams called on De Vries to substitute for an unwell Alexander Albon in the race last month. De Vries caught the eye of the paddock by consistently out-performing the team’s regular driver Nicholas Latifi, reaching Q3 and matching Williams’ best result of the year by finishing eighth in the race.
AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost says that performance “had a great influence because it showed his potential” as a driver. “He drove a fantastic race, did not make any mistakes, and therefore, it was an easy decision to take him.”
De Vries was previously a junior driver for McLaren and Mercedes. Tost said his performances in the junior categories showed he deserved a chance to race in F1.
“He’s fast,” said Tost. “I know his history. I saw him in karting, he won, I think it was 2010 and ’11, the European and the World Championship in karting.
“Then he was really successful in all the categories where he raced. He won in Formula Renault, he won in GP3, he won in Formula 2 and also he won the Formula E world championship. Therefore I think he is a very high-skilled driver, and he deserves to be in Formula 1, and we are really looking forward to having him in our car.”
The opportunity for AlphaTauri to hire De Vries came about when Red Bull chose to release Pierre Gasly from his contract with their junior team a year early in order to replace Fernando Alonso at Alpine. AlphaTauri was therefore already considering De Vries before he had the chance to make his F1 debut in the Italian Grand Prix.
“Monza was important, but it was not an eye-opener because Nyck was on the radar also before,” Tost confirmed. “The special circumstances that other drivers left the teams then that Red Bull also decided not to race with Pierre Gasly from 2024 onwards, this is what they announced, all these components together brought us to the decision that Nyck De Vries is the best possibility and that he will fit quite well to the team.”
Tost said his former driver Max Verstappen didn’t play a role in bringing another Dutch racer to the team. “This was not necessary,” he said. “The right fit from Nyck put in the argumentation.”
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2022 Japanese Grand Prix
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