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De Vries signed multi-year Red Bull contract, says nothing about F1 chances
- GPblog.com
During the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, it was revealed that Nyck de Vries had signed a commitment at AlphaTauri for 2023. Unknown, however, is how many years the 27-year-old Dutchman has signed for. When De Vries, in an interview with Motorsport.com asked about his exact contract situation, he could not tell everything.
Red Bull deal lasts longer than year
De Vries could not say whether he signed a one-year or multi-year deal as AlphaTauri driver. However, according to the aforementioned medium, he does let it be known that it is a Red Bull deal for more than one year. However, this does not say much about his position as an F1 driver, as there have already been several drivers with such a similar deal, which eventually shifted considerably.
In any case, De Vries will remain part of the Red Bull programme in the coming years, which includes AlphaTauri. However, it is not clear what role De Vries will play in the coming years. De Vries will start as an AlphaTauri driver, but could also be promoted and demoted under the same contract just like Pierre Gasly in the past.
With Alexander Albon, we saw in the past that he drove DTM for a year under a Red Bull contract while being a test and reserve driver for Red Bull Racing because there was no longer a place for him in the king class of motorsport. At the same time, De Vries will no doubt also have clauses included in his contract allowing him to transfer to another team in Formula 1 if he can get a permanent F1 seat there and end up on the reserve bench at Red Bull or AlphaTauri.
De Vries' chances in 2024
Whether De Vries will still be active at AlphaTauri in 2024 depends mainly on his own performance, but also that of the Red Bull juniors in Formula 2. Dennis Hauger, Ayumu Iwasa and Isack Hadjar are examples hoping to join Formula 1 after next season. De Vries always needs some time to get going, as the past proved. However, team boss Franz Tost knows that drivers need longer than one season to show their true potential.