Nyck De Vries has been the talk of the paddock in the past week as a potential replacement for Nicholas Latifi at Williams, Alpha Tauri as a Pierre Gasly replacement, and Alpine as a Fernando Alonso replacement. So what is his best option if he was to get a contract?
Having done a couple of FP1 sessions for Williams (at the Spanish Grand Prix), Mercedes (at the French Grand Prix), and most recently with Aston Martin (at the Italian Grand Prix) before completing the rest of the weekend replacing Alex Albon at Williams and my goodness did De Vries take his chance. Missing about half of the final free practice session after a late call-up when he was in the Mercedes hospitality having a coffee when he got the call to head to Williams.
De Vries finished in 9th place in the driver standings even with 2 wins but also contributed to Mercedes-Benz EQ winning the team's title. De Vries was once on the books at McLaren in their junior program he was part of the junior program that led to Lewis Hamilton making his way into F1, so for Nyck why not follow the same route and hope to make the same step? He eventually left the program in 2019 to carry on work for Audi alongside his eventual F2 winning campaign before moving into Formula E with Mercedes alongside ex-McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne.
De Vries would have a solid campaign in his debut Formula E season ultimately finishing 11th place but in a championship that is so tight, it was something to build on for season 7 especially when he would have to do controls that he wouldn’t have done in Formula 2. Season 7 was De Vries’s time, winning the title that season with only 2 wins (Diriyah Race 1 and Valencia Race 1) but also had 4 DNFs. This was back when the qualifying format was hindering the title contenders and allowing the drivers who struggled in the championship to score some points. It was at the season finale at the Berlin E-Prix Race 2 where everything was confirmed for De Vries to be the first ever ABB FIA Formula E World Champion with an 8th place finish and scoring 99 points.
Now let’s talk about his F1 chances, if Nyck De Vries was to get a seat he would be bucking a trend of “young” drivers being given a seat. Some may argue that De Vries’s time has come and gone but it’s only just starting in some ways when you compare his outing in Monza to his weekend team-mate Nicholas Latifi. As mentioned he only had 30 mins of practice to set up the car to his liking and he got that car into P13 in qualifying when all the penalties were applied he found himself in the top 10, with a P8 start. It could have been better had he not hit a switch that sent the brake bias rearwards, almost if not similar to what Hamilton had done at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Move 24 hours later and De Vries would demonstrate the skill and talent he has and also why he should have been in F1 sooner. He was put under all sorts of tests with the race start, a virtual safety car restart, and doing a live pitstop in under 3 seconds. He did amazing in every scenario thrown at him, he remained in the points all race apart from the pit stops. For someone making their Grand Prix debut, De Vries never looked out of place during his defensive driving for P10 against Zhou Guanyu. Other than the odd lock-up now and then De Vries never put a foot wrong but one thing is for sure, De Vries certainly excelled in his audition.
So what are his options?
De Vries isn’t short of options in different series, World Endurance Championship, F1, and Formula E. Being a World Champion as well is something that every team would love to have with them as it can provide some more cash from sponsor sales, merch sales and also crucially get more air time on TV.
F1:
Let’s take a look at his F1 options, De Vries is part of the Mercedes team with his role being a reserve driver usually rotating with Vandoorne (who’s the other reserve driver), so with that Mercedes backing, you’d think that a move to Williams would be perfect for both parties, especially after what happened at Monza. It’s no secret that Williams has been the slowest car on the grid for most of the season but you can’t help but think that it is time for a driver lineup change to progress. Nicholas Latifi and Alex Albon are the current drive lineup but for Williams to progress up the field I can’t help but feel that a lineup of Nyck De Vries and Alex Albon would be ideal and maybe consider having Latifi as a reserve driver but Williams have to snap up De Vries quickly otherwise they will struggle to find someone who is available and improves the lineup straight away.
In recent weeks, De Vries is confirmed to have held talks with Helmut Marko about a move to Alpha Tauri to partner with the recently re-signed Yuki Tsunoda. This would only be if Pierre Gasly was to move to the vacant Alpine seat, but the question that De Vries would need serious answers to is if he would be the team leader or the “number 2” in the team and what would the chances be of a promotion to the main team. De Vries would be useful in more ways than meets the eye with all the Mercedes development he’s done, De Vries could easily be a worthy asset for Alpha Tauri/Red Bull, and even though Toto Wolff has publicly said that Mercedes won’t stand in Nyck’s way of an F1 seat surely they would have to in this scenario.
Should the Gasly/Alpine move wasn’t to materialise, then De Vries would surely be a candidate for the vacant seat after Fernando Alonso confirmed his move to Aston Martin over the summer break. De Vries to Alpine would be a weird move given that the team has Jack Doohan sat waiting in the wings. So De Vries has to ask himself if he would want to effectively be a stopgap for the transition of Doohan. It’s hard to really see what Alpine would offer De Vries that other teams can. Maybe being the 4th fastest team is the only selling point but if I was Nick I’d personally avoid Alpine just because he wouldn’t really be their first choice option to replace Alonso.
If I was De Vries and had all 3 options available, the seat that I would take is the Williams seat, mainly because of the engine that Williams runs (a Mercedes engine), the environment that Williams creates within its garage, and also it would be a good project for him to express himself in a non-pressure environment.
WEC:
There is a chance that should De Vries be unsuccessful in getting a drive for the F1 2023 season then he may end up doing some races in the World Endurance Championship while doing another series (which we will take about later). He has been rumored to be linked with a seat at Toyota to replace Argentinan racer Jose Maria Lopez, and join the #7 team alongside ex-IndyCar driver Mike Conway and ex-F1 driver Kamui Kobayashi. It is believed that De Vries has signed a pre-contract with the Japanese outfit but after a successful outing at Monza could all that be about to change?
De Vries has a history of racing in WEC after doing a couple of seasons with Team Racing Nederland, G-Drive Racing, and TDS Racing x Villante. He has scored a victory in the sports cars in the European Le Mans series, so he is pretty handy when it comes to racing in sports cars but ultimately it is all reliant on an F1 seat being available to him or not.
Formula E:
With McLaren taking over the Mercedes squad for the upcoming 2022-23 season it meant a new driver lineup and De Vries was not going to be retained by McLaren, which seems a bit backward given that it’s quintessentially the Mercedes team just with a new team badge plus we know Zak Brown does a solid job of attracting sponsors so why not keep the last 2 Formula E champions but I guess given the background of De Vries and Vandoorne (effectively deemed not good enough) it makes sense.
De Vries wouldn’t be short of options, after all you don’t win a championship if you don’t have the speed or talent. After being told he won’t be retained by the newly formed Neom McLaren Formula E Team, he had to get in contact with other teams in the series another new team, Maserati, were very keen in taking on the Dutchman. After his heroics in Monza, Maserati would have been watching behind their fingers at the prospect of losing there main target to F1.
De Vries had a deal to drive alongside Eudardo Mortara at the team for next year but you have to feel that there would be an exit clause of some kind should an F1 seat appear. The only loser out of this would be Maserti, if De Vries was to go to F1 then they would have to find a driver quickly to get up to the speed of Morata and a Formula E car, however should a seat wasn’t to materlise for De Vries then would Maserti be getting a 100% committed driver.
If De Vries was to sign for the Maserti Formula E Team, I wonder if they would allow him to do a WEC program alongside it? Would Mercedes keep De Vries on as a reserve driver for the F1 team only release him as Toto Wolff has mentioned?
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