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Official | De Vries confirmed from 2023 at AlphaTauri
- GPblog.com
Nyck de Vries has finally secured a racing seat in Formula 1 after years of trying. The 27-year-old Dutchman will race for the AlphaTauri team from 2023, where he will replace Pierre Gasly. De Vries can thus call himself AlphaTauri's Formula 1 driver from 2023.
The Dutchman has long been part of the Mercedes family, but a racing seat with Mercedes or one of its customer teams was not in the cards for a long time. Williams was reportedly interested in De Vries' services for 2023, but he eventually signed a contract with AlphaTauri.
Into Formula 1 by a diversion
De Vries became champion in Formula 2 in 2019, but a direct switch was not in the cards for the driver from Sneek. Instead, he found a home in Mercedes' Formula E team, with which he became world champion in 2021. At the same time, he has always kept a strong connection with Mercedes' Formula 1 team and was regularly deployed during test sessions, such as the Young Driver Test at the end of the season in Abu Dhabi.
De Vries made his debut in an official F1 session earlier in 2022, when he drove the first free practice for Williams in Spain. In France, he drove VT1 for Mercedes and in Italy for Aston Martin.
Strong debut at Williams
On the same weekend in Italy, De Vries also suddenly made his racing debut for Williams, as Alexander Albon could not drive due to appendicitis. De Vries impressed by piloting the Williams to a neat P9 and beating teammate Nicholas Latifi.