Mercedes boss Toto Wolff hopes Nyck de Vries is able to stay in AlphaTauri and perform well enough so that he can drive for Red Bull some day.
De Vries used to be a Mercedes academy driver, but with limited seats on the paddock, getting a seat was always tough. A fortunate turn of events at Monza led to his debut with Williams, where he scored points and subsequently secured a future in F1 with AlphaTauri.
Talking to Poland’s Swiatwyscigow, Wolff said that he felt De Vries deserved a seat in the senior Red Bull team. Hey said:
“I thought about it. I hope that he stays there, and I hope that he’s successful in AlphaTauri. I hope he will be so good to make it into a Red Bull seat one day, because he deserves that.” Rapid on track, simply incredible on camera, it was wonderful to host today’s post race show with the brilliant @nyckdevries. Think we got through about 6 ice lollies between us on that show. Scorchio!
The Mercedes boss is not the only one giving his stamp of approval. George Russell said that De Vries was rated very highly during their karting days. Hey said:
“Out of the karting boys Nyck was the only one who hadn’t made it to F1 who probably deserved to make it to F1. So those five drivers, between myself, Alex (Albon), Max (Verstappen), Charles (Leclerc) and Nyck, who were in that period racing against each other in ’11 and ’12, as I said, Nyck was the only one who didn’t make it, so happy to see him there.”
He added:
“I’ve always rated him. In go-karting, he was the man to beat. I never raced him in go-karting, but out of all of us, he was probably the most successful one in go-karting. I’ve never not rated him. I think to get to F1, you need to do the job at the right time when there is an opportunity on the grid, and sometimes those stars don’t align. But with the stars that aligned in Monza it probably made up for the unfortunateness of a few years ago.”
The uncomfortable truth about the future of the Mercedes recruit
While it is nice to see De Vries getting a stamp of approval from the Mercedes boss and driver, it’s also safe to say that the Dutch driver’s age brings things into perspective.
It’s not as if De Vries started racing late in his career. One of the reasons why De Vries was unable to attract anyone is the caveat behind almost every championship triumph before he reached F1.
He won the F2 title in a depleted grid in his third season in the championship (Nicholas Latifi was the driver he beat to the title). Even his title win in a rather unpredictable series like Formula-E was followed by a ninth-place finish in the championship the next season (while his teammate won the title).
De Vries is a strong driver, but if someone is making his debut in F1 at 28, it is not just a lack of sponsors that have stymied their progress. It remains to be seen how he fares this season.
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