Nick de Vries, who will race full-time in F1 as a Scuderia AlphaTauri driver in the 2023 F1 World Championship, almost gave up on his F1 dreams and at times struggled with weight as he worked his way up up the lower categories, he said.
A disappointing season in GP3 seven years ago could have hindered Nick de Vries’ bid to reach F1. He eventually secured a seat in Formula 2, but suffered further setbacks when he won the championship in his second season.
Nick de Vries arrives in F1 this season, four years after winning the F2 title. He also had success in Formula E, winning the 2020-21 championship. But that means he faces the unusual challenge of making his F1 debut when he is more than half the age of his rivals in Bahrain next month.
“I’m one of the older guys, so I’ve come a long way to get here,” said Nick de Vries in an interview with AlphaTauri.
“I grew up with a lot of the drivers that are on the grid now. I feel like I belong to their generation.”
Nick de Vries was initially supported by McLaren. McLaren began supporting De Vries in motor racing after his success in go-karts.
“The karting years were very successful,” says Nick de Vries.
“At the time, I won the European Championship and won the World Championship two years in a row while still under contract with McLaren.”
“I think the timing was very good because Lewis was there[Hamilton]had just made his debut in Formula 1 and it was obviously a very successful story and he was trying to emulate a similar success story.”
However, Nick de Vries’ progress in the junior category was not entirely smooth and included three years at Formula Renault 2.0 level.
“The first few years in the car were a bit difficult,” said Nick de Vries.
“In terms of performance, I think it’s still good, but I think we probably didn’t perform well because the expectations were high. It took a little time to get up to speed. “
“Physically, I think I have developed sufficiently. I won with Renault, finished third in Formula Renault 3.5 (equivalent to Formula 2 at the time), and then moved on to GP3, which is probably the toughest season in single-seater racing. 2016.
Nick de Vries, who drove Esteban Ocon to the title the previous year in the reigning ART, finished the sixth season of 2016 sixth in the standings. His teammates Charles Leclerc and Alexander Albon were in the top two positions in the standings. That coincided with a change in McLaren senior management, with Zak Brown replacing Ron Dennis.
“At the end of the year there was a change of management at McLaren and I lost their financial support,” added Nick de Vries.
“From that year on, I started a very difficult period, because without the financial support, I had no way to develop my career and I didn’t know how to continue.
“So, in the end, I decided to test the DTM with Audi and the GTE with Ferrari. It made me very aware of leaving F1, which is my dream and goal.”
He secured the F2 seat for Lapax at the last minute with the support of his rival’s father Sean Gelael.
“For the first test of the F2 season, literally a week before the first test, with the help of Ricardo Gelael, everything went well,” said Nick de Vries.
“And then, with the help of Ricardo Gelael, I managed to take part in the first test in F2.”
“At the time Rapax were very keen to have me in the team and they helped me a lot to make it happen, but it was only a third of the budget and it would be difficult to finish the season. But then the next year I was with Prema and it was a good season.”
“It wasn’t really a season,” said Nick de Vries in his first year in Formula 2.
“It wasn’t about fighting for anything. To make sure you survive and survive the single seat races, that worked.”
De Vries said his first year in F2 “wasn’t a real season”. “I had a chance to fight for something. It was about survival, it was about making sure I survived single seat racing. And it worked.”
In 2018, Nick de Vries joined reigning champions Prema alongside Sean Gelael. In a competitive season, Nick DeVries finished fourth behind champions George Russell, Lando Norris and Albon. We could have been better, but I feel that the team is putting too much emphasis on winning races rather than collecting points.
“If it wasn’t for a few mistakes on my part, I could have finished second or third,” said Nick de Vries.
“I think we had a really good pace and we won quite a few races, but we made a few mistakes which were a bit too expensive. Especially in Formula 2, you have feature races and sprint races, so it’s a weekend that could be ruined.”
“Twice I crashed trying to win, so I basically lost two weekends. George, Lando and Alex in the top three were promoted to F1, but I finished fourth. And I couldn’t get promoted.”
“Honestly, I think it was my mistake that I didn’t score more points, so I look at myself. I definitely think we had the pace, we were better than the guys from ahead, but really. We also lost a lot of points in situations where we could have scored big points.”
Nick de Vries admits he “didn’t exactly handle the pressure from the team” while trying to retain the title he won with Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly.
“They had just won two championships with Pierre and Charles and all they expected was victory and dominance.”
“I remember the moment in Bahrain. After the first qualifier, we were in 4th place. In F2, if you’re in the top 7, you have a feature race, a sprint race, so it’s a good result and consistency is important But when I got back to the team they literally told me if you’ n losing the championship on pole position here it’s your fault and I was shocked by that, that was the environment at the time and I couldn’t handle it well enough.”
After scoring double points in Bahrain, Nick de Vries suffered a costly blow in the next race in Azerbaijan.
“I was fighting with George for the win and I got hit in the restart after the safety car and we both retired,” Nick de Vries recalled.
“I was too scared to go back to the garage. I literally left town and sat on a little bench in the middle of Baku and cried. Then I texted my coach at the time basically asking when I need to go back. I was so scared that I let it sit for an hour and a half. I couldn’t handle the internal pressure enough.
In 2019, Nick de Vries had the chance to return to ART and avenge a disappointing 2016 season with them by winning the F2 title strongly over Nicholas Latifi.
“Obviously I told them a lot about my experience, what I’ve been through, and they were very supportive when I moved to ART,” said Nick de Vries.
“While 2018 was about winning (races) rather than winning a championship, we were very focused on scoring points.
The new F2 champion won’t be promoted to F1 immediately, but his success opened the door for Mercedes allowing him to make his Grand Prix debut.
“Mercedes was building a new team in Formula E at the time. For the first time, a working relationship started and ended in Formula E.”
Despite becoming Formula E champion, Nick de Vries had another important season last year as Mercedes pulled out of the series. The new F1 rules require inexperienced drivers to practice, and Nick de Vries had the opportunity. Mercedes and its customers turned to De Vries to look after their cars.
As a result, I was able to make my F1 debut at Monza last year. There was a bid for the World Endurance Championship in Japan, but Nick de Vries was taking part in F1 practice runs with Aston Martin.
“There was a WEC race that weekend in Fuji and I had the opportunity to race for a team that offered me the chance to fight for the win.
“But we are committed to some FP1s and doing Monza FP1 with Aston Martin happened to be a better assignment for everyone. Rather than racing at Fuji, we would be FP1 with Aston Martins. But it was also obviously great.”
De Vries, who drove an Aston Martin in Friday’s free practice, was delighted to be given the chance to continue the weekend at Williams in place of Alexander Albon, who collapsed with appendicitis.
“I was very relaxed that night, just relaxing after the weekend and FP1. Instead of speaking in front of a crowd, I was sitting with a guest ordering a cappuccino, and I got a call from James Bowles saying, ‘Can you come to the Mercedes office? I was told I couldn’t.
“I didn’t understand what he said. I thought he was talking about the future like next season. I didn’t really understand.”
De Vries said the Mercedes engineers “backed me” when news of his debut broke.
“I was like, ‘Everybody calm down and wait a minute.'”
“I walked down to Williams to find out what the problem was. Unfortunately, Alex ended up in hospital overnight with appendicitis. I wasn’t sure if I was going to race.”
“But 20 minutes later in the meeting before FP3 it became clear that I was going to come all weekend and from that moment on I didn’t leave the engineering office and the garage.”
Nick de Vries’ debut could not have been better in these circumstances. He surpassed teammate Latifi to score points on his debut. He dined with race winner Max Verstappen that evening and was encouraged to use the opportunity to approach Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko for his autograph.
“We had dinner together on Monday night to celebrate his victory and my debut. It was a pleasure to share that moment with him.”
“Of course, we talked about the future and the opportunities. And the most important thing I got from that dinner was that I was still officially recognized as a Mercedes driver. I was part from Mercedes until the end of 2022. I think it was important to clarify
“So I think it’s good that I basically made my position clear in order not to miss out on any possible opportunities.”
Nick de Vries’ approach to Helmut Marko was well-timed as his hopes of bringing IndyCar star Colton Herta to F1 were thwarted by the FIA’s advanced license points system. Nick de Vries, who turns 28 next week, is now on track to make his F1 debut.
Category: F1 / Nick de Vries / Alpha Tauri
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