Nyck de Vries almost gave up single-seater racing in first F2 season

De Vries secured the F2 title this year with a round to spare during his third season in the championship and is now driving for Mercedes with their Formula E team, but his career could have been different.
 
Following victories in the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2015 and finished sixth with ART in GP3 in 2016 the Dutchman moved up to F2 with Rapax but financial issues through the season made for trouble.
 
"To be fair, I think my first season would not be fair to see as a true championship campaign," de Vries told Motorsport.com.

"I started with Rapax, they were in significant financial issues and I got swapped in the middle of the season, two days before Spa, not even knowing about it in advance.

"So it was a bit of a messy season, but it was enough to survive. I think that was a key point in my career because I could have probably moved away from single-seater racing and started a professional career in GTs or something.

"But I felt that I wasn't ready for that yet and [wanted to] try and give it a shot [in single-seaters]."

De Vries moved to Prema Racing for 2018, winning three races and finished fourth in the championship, but took a different mindset to ART for 2019.

"Yeah, exactly, being too focused and fixated on winning," he said.

"Because, strangely, winning comes naturally when you're in that flow and you build yourself into a championship.

"The people around you start to trust you, there's more calmness and then suddenly things start to come your way. I experienced that this year, even though we had a tough beginning.

"The experience I gathered over the years made me confident and calm enough, plus the support of the team which was all on the same page and approach, to stay calm and focus on ourselves and build it as we went along, and I think that was crucial."