2022 was a defining year for Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman has been regarded as a promising talent for a long time and won both the F2 and Formula E World Championships. Despite that, he failed to land an F1 seat for himself due to lack of opportunities.
In 2022, however, he stood in for Williams’ Alex Albon at the Italian GP because the Thai driver was out with appendicitis. It proved to be the break he was looking for as his impressive P9 finish on debut made F1 teams make notice of his talent. There was an opening at AlphaTauri for 2023 after Pierre Gasly’s departure and the sister team of Red Bull ended up signing him.
De Vries is now gearing up for his first ever season in F1. Ahead of the campaign, he announced that he will follow in the footsteps of some other F1 greats and launch a clothing line of his own. The main purpose of this will be to bring him closer to his fans.
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Nyck De Vries wants to get closer to his fans
Some of the biggest stars in F1 have launched their own merchandise lines over the last few years. The likes of Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo have their own clothing lines which allow their fans to show support.
De Vries hopes to follow suit and with the help of others, he aims to start his own thing. Joining the AlphaTauri driver in his project will be Scotch & Soda founder Eric Bijlsma, his manager Guillaume Le Goff and his sister, Seychelle. De Vries added that Seychelle in particular is heavily invested in making this dream of his successful.
CONFIRMED! Nyck de Vries WILL be on the grid in 2023 as he joins AlphaTauri! 📝 pic.twitter.com/ZSIo1y1APG
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) October 8, 2022
“I hardly get informed, get a little update now and then,” said de Vries to Formula1.nl. “She that does all that. And she does that wonderfully. Guillaume has already dropped words of praise about Seychelle several times. Because she is doing a fantastic job. It’s actually rather her little startup. I get involved very little.”
Nyck de Vries 👏
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) September 11, 2022
De Vries added that his main motive won’t be to make profit off his merchandise. The primary goal is for him to get closer to his fans.
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De Vries to lead AlphaTauri in 2023?
Pierre Gasly was the undisputed leader at AlphaTauri over the last few years. However, now that he left them for Alpine, it makes Yuki Tsunoda the experienced driver at the helm. Even though the Japanese driver is only 22 years old, it will be his third season in F1 which makes him way more experienced than 27 year old de Vries when it comes to this particular category.
However, Red Bull boss Helmut Marko feels that de Vries’ experience in other ventures will make him a more valuable asset to the team. As a result, he expects the Dutchman to lead AlphaTauri, despite Tsunoda having more experience.
