The three rookie drivers who will take their places on the grid for the 2023 F1 season arrive with differing expectations heaped upon them. Not only due to the different paths they’ve taken to reach F1, but also because of the teams they are joining.
The most experienced of the trio is AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries, who has one F1 start to his name courtesy of a last-minute call-up to replace the ill Alex Albon at Williams for last year’s Italian Grand Prix.
His performance that weekend made him a target of multiple teams for 2023, and Red Bull’s interest won out over Williams’, so de Vries signed for its secondary AlphaTauri team for his long-awaited rookie F1 season.
De Vries qualified 13th at Monza but started eighth due to others being penalised. He scored two points by finishing ninth in a car he had only driven in two practice sessions before his first run in qualifying. Team mate Nicholas Latifi came in 15th.
De Vries spent most of his career looking like he would eventually reach F1, as McLaren backed him through karting and the majority of his time in junior single-seaters. He spent three years in Formula Renault 2.0, culminating in winning the Eurocup title, was third in FR3.5 as a rookie, stepped down to GP3 and was only sixth in the standings, then stepped back up to Formula 2 and won the title at his third attempt.
Having parted ways with McLaren as he went into his third season in F2, de Vries was then a free agent and Mercedes signed him in autumn to be one of their drivers for their entry into Formula E later that year. Such a move was not dependent on the possession of a superlicence, unlike drivers wanting to race in F1, and it didn’t distract de Vries as he then went on to become F2 champion.
His F2 performances improved once he escaped the pressure and lack of support McLaren’s management structure provided him with at the time. But he was also helped by being at a top team, so going into a professional series like FE promised to be a better test of how much he had grown as a driver.
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Over the 11 races of his rookie season, de Vries was outscored to the tune of 27 points by his team mate Stoffel Vandoorne but did end the campaign with his first podium finish. The Covid-19 pandemic led to half of that season being contested over a single week, but the next season was arguably even crazier. The top 15 in the standings were split by less 25 points – a race…
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