Mercedes had Nyck de Vries in their books for a long time, and the Dutch driver waited patiently for his big break in F1. However, Toto Wolff could not accommodate him in the Silver Arrows, so it became obvious that he had to move elsewhere to pursue his F1 dreams.
Unfortunately, the grid was completely stacked and there seemed to be no opportunity available for de Vries. However, his lucky break came at the 2022 Italian GP where he stood in for Alex Albon who was out with appendicitis. In his debut race in F1, he guided a Williams car to a points finish, which showed everyone just how talented he was.
For de Vries, this was the break he needed. Plenty of F1 teams took notice of the 2020-21 Formula-E Champion, and in the end, AlphaTauri became the team to land his signature. With that, he is officially in the Red Bull books now, which makes him a driver for Mercedes’ rival team.
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Toto Wolff hopes Nyck de Vries gets in a Red Bull seat soon
Even though a rival team ended up signing de Vries, Wolff hopes that he succeeds in F1. He is one of the most talented drivers of his generation, and the lack of opportunities limited his growth during the majority of his development years.
Now that Red Bull finally has a driver as good as de Vries, Wolff hopes that they nurture him well.
“I hope he will be so good to make it into a Red Bull seat one day,” Wolff said to Swiatwyscigow.pl. “Because he deserves that. And then we take it like sportsmen, and we fight it out.”
De Vries will replace the outgoing Pierre Gasly at AlphaTauri and partner up with Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez will enter the last year of his contract in 2024, so it is highly possible that the Milton-Keynes-based outfit will keep an eye out for the 27-year old and monitor his progress with AlphaTauri.
Gasly meanwhile, has moved to Alpine where he will be compatriot Esteban Ocon’s teammate from the 2023 season onwards.
