Nyck de Vries was as soon as seen as Toto Wolff’s Method 1 “insurance coverage coverage” at Mercedes. Now he’s with AlphaTauri. Might he be Pink Bull’s subsequent new driver?
The motive force lineup for the 2023 Method 1 season is ready, and one of many bulletins of change concerned Pink Bull sister group AlphaTauri.
AlphaTauri introduced through the summer time that Pierre Gasly can be remaining with the group for the 2023 season, however that didn’t forestall hypothesis that maybe he would get out of his deal early if there occurred to be a greater alternative.
That higher alternative did come, albeit unexpectedly, when Fernando Alonso introduced that he can be leaving Alpine and becoming a member of Aston Martin to switch the retiring Sebastian Vettel.
Alpine initially thought that they may merely promote reserve driver Oscar Piastri to take Alonso’s place, however that didn’t occur, as Piastri had signed with McLaren to switch Daniel Ricciardo and the FIA Contract Recognition Board in the end dominated in McLaren’s favor.
There have been rumors that AlphaTauri can be prepared to let go of Gasly if they may signal IndyCar driver Colton Herta to take his place.
However even with Herta unable to achieve the mandatory factors to safe a Tremendous License, AlphaTauri didn’t rule out the opportunity of letting Gasly transfer elsewhere, offered they may discover a appropriate alternative.
At Monza, after ex-Pink Bull and AlphaTauri driver Alexander Albon was sidelined with appendicitis, Nyck de Vries bought the possibility to make his Method 1 debut with Williams, and he impressed nearly all people within the paddock with a ninth place end, scoring two factors. Via the season’s first 16 races, the Grove-based group had solely scored 4 factors whole.
The 27-year-old Dutchman was reportedly on Alpine’s radar, however he in the end signed with AlphaTauri, opening the door for Gasly to maneuver to Alpine.
Earlier within the 12 months, fellow Dutch racing driver Tom Coronel said that he believed de Vries was Toto Wolff’s “insurance coverage coverage” within the occasion that Lewis Hamilton both determined to retire after the 2022 season or not re-sign with Mercedes — whether or not that meant retiring or transferring elsewhere — past 2023.
De Vries serves because the reserve driver for Mercedes, and he can usually be seen by Wolff’s aspect throughout a Method 1 race weekend. He received the 2019 Method 2 championship earlier than transferring to Method E with Mercedes and successful the 2020-2021 world championship.
He had lengthy been thought-about one of the deserving drivers not but competing in Method 1, given the truth that he had achieved just about every little thing there was to perform to show himself deserving of a seat.
Again within the spring and early summer time, when it was rumored that Alpine would mortgage out Oscar Piastri to Williams to switch Nicholas Latifi, it was believed that de Vries would but once more find yourself with no seat for 2023, since his title had lengthy been connected to a seat on the Mercedes-powered group.
Now right here we’re, and de Vries has signed a multi-year contract with Pink Bull to compete for sister group AlphaTauri.
Whereas Mercedes have expressed no issues about de Vries taking data to their bitter rival, might this in the end come again to hang-out them in the long term?
Two-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen is beneath contract with the group by means of the 2028 season after signing a large extension earlier this 12 months, and teammate Sergio Perez later agreed to an extension to stay with the group by means of 2024.
With de Vries beneath contract for the subsequent two seasons at AlphaTauri, that would probably set him as much as make the transfer to the highest group in 2025. Simply attempt to envision the Orange Military at that time.
And what occurs when Hamilton decides to hold it up? Is Mick Schumacher, who just lately signed with the group as their reserve driver after dropping his seat with Haas, the reply?
Let’s additionally not neglect that, earlier than Verstappen received the 2021 Method 1 world championship, Mercedes took satisfaction in letting followers know that de Vries was the primary Dutch world champion, having received the 2020-2021 Method E title.
Pink Bull, in fact, corrected them, precisely stating that it was really 2018 Motocross world champion Jeffrey Herlings.
Time will inform if each the second and third Dutch world champions find yourself on the identical group, however in the meanwhile, it doesn’t take a look at all possible that de Vries goes to finish up at Mercedes within the close to future, even when Hamilton retires throughout the subsequent few seasons.
